Associate Director Erika Trapl, PhD, was a guest on WCPN 90.3’s Sound of Ideas on September 12 for a panel discussion on the state of sex education locally and nationally. Dr. Trapl discussed local trends in adolescent sexual behavior from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). School-age sexual health education research is one of Dr. Trapl’s areas of expertise, and it’s also a topic that the PRCHN focuses on heavily in local YRBS work due to high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates. Sexually transmitted diseases are at an all-time high in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 2.3 million cases were diagnosed in 2017. It’s a record, and the fourth straight year the number of diagnoses increased.
