A recent study by the American Journal of Sociology showed that American teens are involved in a frightening intricate network of sexual partners, facilitating a possible spread of STDs. Of 832 interviews performed at a typical Midwestern high school, 573 students have been involved in at least one sexual relationship, and 288 were within the same network. According to co-researcher Peter S. Bearman of Columbia University, students were asked to name individuals with whom they had had a romantic, sexual relationship in the past 18 months. (This was defined as a relationship in which a teen said they had special feelings of affection for the sexual partner -- in what generally would be considered a "dating" relationship, rather than merely "hooking up" for casual sex.) "While these adolescents have only had one partner," Bearman said, "their risk for contracting an STD may be significantly greater than an individual with multiple partners who is embedded in a smaller," disjointed network.
