WHAT NATIONAL STUDIES ARE SAYING ABOUT YOU

Reporting by Allison Smith

You like sex for more than one reason.

It’s more like 237. Psychology researchers at The University of Texas at Austin reported that people have a total of 237 reasons why they have sex. Those range from “it feels good” to “I want to give someone an STD.”

You’re poor.

Seventy-five percent of undergraduates and 92 percent of graduate students nationwide have a credit card. On average, graduate students are more than $12,000 in debt. Undergraduates average less than half that.

You drink more than young adults did a decade ago…

Rates of binge drinking — consuming more than five drinks on one occasion — for females between the ages of 12 and 20 have increased from 60 percent in 1991 to more than 80 percent in 2005. This figure is comparable to males. An increase in teen advertising is cited as a major cause to the female drinking trend.

… and take more illegal drugs.

About half of America’s full-time college students abuse drugs and alcohol. The same study found that from 1993 to 2005 the rate of those who use illegal drugs jumped from 5.4 percent to 8.2 percent. The rates of occasional drinkers, however, remained about the same.

You need help reading charts.

More than 50 percent of students at four-year colleges and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks. Those surveyed could:

• Not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure
• Understand the arguments of a newspaper editorial
• Compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees
• Summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school

Sources:
The University of Texas at Austin; Archives of Sexual Behavior: August 2007; Survey by Nellie Mae loan company; Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University; Pew Charitable Trusts