You probably know people your age who live down to those expectations, and if you flipped by MTV’s spring break programming, you may think that’s practically everybody. But it’s not. In fact, more and more young people are turning against the sexual revolution.

The latest evidence comes from an annual survey published by the Higher Education Research Institute out of UCLA entitled The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 1998. This extensive report — based on responses from 275,811 students at 469 academic institutions — found college freshmen taking a turn conventional wisdom never would have predicted:

* Support for casual sex is at a record low for the survey’s 33-year history. Presented with the statement "If two people really like each other, it’s all right for them to have sex even if they’ve known each other for a very short time," only 39.6 percent of freshmen agreed — down from 42 percent in 1997 and 51.9 percent in 1987.

* Legalized abortion is backed by a bare majority of 50.9 percent — also a record low. Support has fallen for six consecutive years, and is down fully 14 points from 1990’s high point of 64.9 percent.

* The number of students who drink beer is at yet another record low, 51.6 percent, down by one-third from its high of 75.2 percent in 1981. Drinking wine and liquor stands at 54.9 percent, down from a high of 66.7 percent in 1987.

To be sure, the numbers so far don’t show a wholesale return to traditional morality. But they represent an impressive, encouraging trend — one that seemingly bucks the odds.

It’s not as if students are living in an environment that promotes traditional morality. TV, movies and music regularly bombard them with sleaze, in some cases worse than ever. Their elders aren’t exactly setting a sterling example: the president’s recurring lecherous behavior is famous, and polls show large numbers of people are indifferent to it. (Some, I’m convinced, are actually rooting for the president because of his behavior: I know of one man who cheated on his wife and defended himself by saying, in a nutshell, "If the president can do it, so can I." Does anyone doubt there are many other people who welcome lowered standards for the same self-serving reason?)

Against this background, some might expect to see young people — allegedly hot-blooded and wild by nature — to be at the forefront of a new promiscuity. But that’s not the way it’s working at all.

Teen-abstinence groups are springing up all across the country in the ‘90s, and drawing phenomenal support in some rough places: Earlier this year 9,000 Chicago high school students showed up at a rally launching a new abstinence-focused curriculum in that city’s public schools. Surveys show overall teen sexual activity is down, as is the abortion rate.

"[Teens] see sexual activity — such as Bill Clinton’s — as negative behavior," says historian Bill Strauss, author of the 1991 book Generations. "I have seen surveys that, when broken down by age bracket, show that teens are the harshest on President Clinton. They feel if they behaved as he did, they’d be in huge trouble."

What accounts for this trend? I think the answer is simple: Experience.

In the 1960s, the sexual revolution made lavish promises that it would usher in an era of "liberation." Freed from "repressive" middle-class morality, people would enjoy happiness, peace and fulfillment — or so went the theory.

But the sexual revolution was a lie — and nobody knows it better than the people who’ve seen and felt its consequences all their lives.

High school and college students know all too well the pain of rampant divorce and families with no fathers. They know the pain of sexually transmitted diseases, and worse, of hearts ripped apart by sexual encounters devoid of true commitment. They know the pain that follows abortions — the sense of a loss so deep and soul-felt they can’t begin to describe it.

Whether they’ve felt the pain themselves or they’ve seen it in friends who’ve cried on their shoulders, they’ve learned the hard way that sex isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Moreover, they sense that life simply must have more meaning than they’ve been told — that the cynicism and self-service they see around them simply can’t be all there is.

Not all of them know what the alternative is, of course. But a lot of them have a pretty good idea where to look.

Very nearly the most common activity freshmen reported during their high school senior year was attending religious service, The American Freshman noted. (The number, 81.9 percent, came in just behind using the Internet for research or homework at 82.9 percent). A record number of freshmen (74.2 percent) also donated time to volunteer activities in their senior year.

"Today’s high school kids ... are developing a sense of personal responsibility," Strauss says. "They’ll believe that character matters in leadership. ... These kids are not going to reinvent the ‘60s."

I can’t say for sure whether Strauss’s prediction will turn out to be accurate. High school and new college students have a lot of experiences ahead of them, and holding on to their values won’t be easy.