Teens who skip school likelier to have unprotected sex

A new study has revealed that teenagers who skip schools, fail test are less likely to use a condom while having sex.

According to a study by Indiana University researchers who combed through 80,000 diary entries written by 14- to 17-year-old girls, young women's weekday reports of skipping school and failing a test are significantly linked to more frequent vaginal sex, less frequent condom use and different sexual emotions, on that same day.

The study found that vaginal sex was more frequent (13.5 percent vs. 5.4 percent) and condom use was less frequent (13.8 percent vs. 33.1 percent) on weekdays when school was skipped as compared to weekdays when school was attended. However, incidents of vaginal sex did not vary if the diary author failed or did not fail a test (6.4 percent vs. 5.8 percent); but when sex did occur, condom use was less frequent when she failed a test (6.9 percent) compared to when she did not (27.1 percent).

Researchers said that the strength of using multiple daily reports is that allows us a more ecologically valid, or 'real world,' look at how young women's academic and romantic behaviors are linked from one day to the next. Rather than relying on reports about what happened in the past, they have a unique view of events as they unfold.

The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.