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Jewish World Review
Feb. 5, 2010
/ 21 Shevat 5770
Abstinence Education Works After All
By
Linda Chavez
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Abstinence-only sex education has been a favorite target of the cultural
elite, who argued it was naive at best and dangerous at worst. Now, a
new study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine
suggests that encouraging young teens to just say no to sex may be the
most effective method at delaying early sexual activity. The study, the
first of its kind to employ rigorous research methods in a controlled
setting, showed that programs that encouraged 12- to 14-year-old
students to refrain from sexual activity "until they are ready" were
more effective than other approaches.
The study followed 662 African-American students in urban schools, a
group that, on average previous research shows become sexually
active at a young age. The students were randomly assigned to one of
four groups. One group was given abstinence-only sex education. Another
was given sex education that stressed condom use. A third group was
given contraceptive information but was also encouraged to delay sexual
activity. And a control group was given only general health information.
Two-thirds of the students who received an abstinence-only message had
not become sexually active two years later. These students were provided
with information on HIV and were given medically accurate information on
sex. Students were encouraged to remain abstinent and were given advice
on how to resist pressure to have sex.
Those students who were given a safe-sex curriculum that stressed
contraception and avoiding sexually transmitted disease, without an
abstinence message, were significantly more likely than the
abstinence-only students to be sexually active two years later. More
than half of those in the safe-sex group, 52 percent, became sexually
active in that time period slightly more than the 47 percent in the
control group, who received neither a safe sex nor an abstinence message
but only general health information. Some 42 percent of the students in
the comprehensive program who received instruction on contraception
and encouragement to delay sex became sexually active within two
years.

The study couldn't come at a more inconvenient time for the Obama
administration, which has cut more than $170 million in federally funded
abstinence education programs from the federal budget. In place of
abstinence-only programs, the Obama administration has been advocating
instead for pregnancy prevention programs that stress contraception and
has asked for increased funding for such programs, $183 million in the
budget released earlier this week.
The study will give lawmakers who favor abstinence programs more
ammunition to argue that it's worth trying to discourage teens from
having sex. But this study isn't the only one to suggest that teens can
be persuaded to delay sexual activity if adults are willing to tell them
why it's important not to become sexually active at a young age. In one
study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy,
90 percent of teens said that they believed it was important to
encourage abstinence, and 60 percent of sexually active teens said that
they wished they had not had sex.
What teens seem to be saying is that they want to hear more from adults
about the dangers of becoming sexually active in their teen years. The
obvious dangers sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy are
only part of the problem. Becoming sexually active at a young an age is
fraught with emotional as well as physical risks, and we owe it to teens
to tell them so.
Parents are in the best position to make this case and according to
other studies by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy, teens say that parents have more influence over their sexual
behavior than peers do. And schools should reinforce this message, not
undermine it. If we send the message that early sexual activity is no
big deal so long as teens are careful to not get pregnant or get an STD,
we shouldn't be surprised that more kids will decide to have sex.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
Linda Chavez Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
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