《中英對照讀新聞》After-school time not a prime time for teen sex 放學後並非青少年性行為的黃金時段

◎張其賢

Though parents may worry about what their kids are doing after school, a new study suggests that teenagers do not often use their unsupervised afternoon to have sex.

雖然家長可能對他們小孩子在放學之後做些什麼感到擔心，一項新研究顯示，青少年並未經常使用他們無人監督的下午發生性行為。

In a study that followed 106 teenage girls for more than two years, researchers found that the teens were more than twice as likely to report having sex in the evening compared with afternoons. And girls were less likely to have sex on school-day afternoons than on weekends.

在一項追蹤調查106位女孩超過兩年的研究中，研究人員發現，青少年通報其在晚間發生性行為者，乃是通報在下午發生性行為者的兩倍以上。女孩子在放學後的下午發生性行為的可能性，不如在週末時高。

In general, personal and relationship factors were more important than mere opportunity in teenagers' decisions to have sex, according to findings published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

一般而言，在青少年發生性行為的決定上，個人及感情因素要比單純的機會更加重要，根據這份刊登在「青少年衛生期刊」上的發現。

This is the first study to follow teenagers over time and look specifically at the correlation between time of day and sexual activity. Overall, it finds that less than onethird of the sexual encounters the girls reported happened on weekday afternoons. Unmonitored after-school time appeared not to be a major contributor to teen's sexual behavior.

這是第一份長時間追蹤調查青少年、並專門檢視一天中的時段和性活動之相關性的研究。整體來說，它發現女孩所通報的性接觸中，發生在週一到週五下午者不到3分之1。無人監督的放學後時段，似乎不是青少年性行為的主要促成因素。

Instead, girls tended to have sex or not have sex based on the ups and downs of their relationship with their boyfriend, or based on whether they "had a good day or a bad day emotionally," said Dr. J. Dennis Fortenberry, the lead author of the study.

情況毋寧是，女孩傾向於根據她們和男友關係的起伏、或根據她們「今天心情好或不好」，而發生或不發生性行為，這份研究的主要作者佛騰伯里大夫說。

新聞辭典

prime time︰常用片語，（電視）黃金時段。

relationship︰名詞，（男女）感情關係；也可泛指親子、夫妻、家人關係。「感情問題」是relationship problem。

A have a good ╱ badday︰常用片語，A今天一切很順╱很不順。