Today’s teenagers are less sexually active than those of past years, and the sex they do have more frequently involves the use of contraception, MedPage Today reports.

The authors of the National Center for Health Statistics report analyzed data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which relies on a nationally representative sample of individuals between ages 15 and 44. Conducted between 2011 and 2015, the survey included responses from 4,134 teenagers, about evenly divided between the sexes.

The investigators also looked at the 1988, 1995 and 2002 NSFG surveys, a continuous NSFG survey conducted between 2006 and 2010 and data from the 1988 and 1995 National Surveys of Adolescent Males.

Looking at the most recent era, the researchers found that 30 percent of female teens and 29 percent of male teens reported having sexual intercourse during the previous three months.

Of those female teens who were sexually experienced, 98 percent reported having used contraception in 2002, and 99 percent reported having done so in the 2011 to 2015 period.

As for the reported use of contraception during female teens’ first sexual experience, 74.5 percent reported such use in 2002 compared with 81 percent between 2011 and 2015. Males’ reported use of condoms during their first sexual experience was 70.9 percent in 2002, 79.6 percent between 2006 and 2010 and 76.8 percent between 2011 and 2015.

This study followed a previous paper that also found that young people today are having sex less than previous generations did.

To read the MedPage Today article, click here.