WASHINGTON -- Positive peer pressure from close friends is helping teens avoid risky sexual behavior, according to reports issued today on Capitol Hill.
Rates of pregnancy, birth and abortion continue to drop among teens, according to a 50-state report released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of New York.
The institute reported these national trends for 1996 among women ages 15 to 19:
* Pregnancy rates fell 4 percent from 1995, to 97 per 1,000 women.
* Birth rates also fell 4 percent, to 54 per 1,000.
* Abortion rates fell 3 percent, to 29 per 1,000.
Maryland's rates also declined significantly, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
* The state's teen pregnancy rate declined 10 percent, to 106 per 1,000 women.
* Births to teens also dropped 10 percent, to 46 births per 1,000.
* Abortions dropped 12 percent, to 46 abortions per 1,000.
In 1996, Maryland had the 13th-highest teen pregnancy rate, the 30th-highest birth rate and the fourth-highest abortion rate, the institute said.
"Teen pregnancy rates have been coming down since 1990, and birth rates have been coming down since 1990," said Isabel Saw-hill, president of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. That still means about 1 million teens are getting pregnant each year, she emphasized.
"Many groups want to take credit for the drop in teen-age pregnancy, but the credit truly goes to teen-agers," said Jacqueline Darroch, Guttmacher Institute vice president for research.
She attributed the decline to both decreased sexual activity and more effective use of contraception by teens.
Sawhill said, "The next, deeper question is, why did that happen?"
New polls and sociological studies aimed at finding the answer were paid for by her Washington research and advocacy group.
In telephone polls in March, teens and parents of teens were asked, "When it comes to decisions about sex, what influence do teens have on each other?" Their answers were almost identical: 57 percent of parents and 58 percent of teens said "very positive" or "somewhat positive."
Sexual activity rates are being lowered by a "domino effect," said a lead researcher, B. Bradford Brown, an educational psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He reasoned that, as fewer teens have sex or babies, more and more teens end up with close friends whose example, behavior and admonitions discourage early sexual debuts.
