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Most Teenagers in Relationships

Physical intimacy among teenagers has intensified. In a research on adolescents' dating culture, 44 percent of middle school girls said they hold hands with their boyfriend and 14 percent said they hug and kiss. An increasing number of teens have sex.

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With more teenagers in relationships, some of those who are single now face bullying and ostracism at school for being "unpopular".

According to a survey by Seoul Social Welfare Graduate University in 2010, 53 percent out of 400 middle school students in Gyeonggi Province said they had been or were in a relationship. Another 2010 survey of 1,245 six graders in Seoul by the AHA Sexuality Education and Counseling Center for Youth showed as many as 30 percent of them had been in relationships, suggesting the age of the first relationship has come down considerably.

Ohshin Sung-hee at Korea Youth Sexuality Culture Center said, "In Europe and the U.S., where dating among youngsters is much more prevalent and attitudes towards sex are much more open, active and effective sex education is being carried out. We should stop viewing teenagers' dating negatively and try to provide proper sex education".

englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 14, 2012 07:44 KST

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