Sexual Preference Trends and Teens

The CDC’s recently released bi-annual Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data on American teenagers offers a look into what our kids believe and how they are behaving on a variety of matters. Parents and youth workers need to look at the data so that we might know how to best address our kids on matters that Scripture so clearly addresses. For example, this year’s data reveals that the proportion of high school students who identify as heterosexual has declined from eighty-nine percent in 2015, to around seventy-five percent this year. In addition, the proportion of high school students who identified as homosexual, gay or bisexual has increased from eight percent in 2015 to fifteen percent now. The implications are clear. Our kids are listening to the cultural narrative on sexuality, a narrative that encourages living in to one’s personal choices rather than God’s good design for sexuality. We need to teach our kids God’s freedom-giving design for sex and marriage.