Study Finds Abstinence-Only Programs Fail to Reduce Teen Sexual Behavior

FoxNews.com ^ | November 7, 2007

[ShadowDancer]

Study Finds Abstinence-Only Programs Fail to Reduce Teen Sexual Behavior

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

WASHINGTON — Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.

The report, which was based on a review of research into teenager sexual behavior, was being released Wednesday by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

[Dixie Yooper]

Abstinence programs only work for those who participate or don’t participate or well, you know what I mean.

[ClearCase_guy]

So, telling kids to delay sex does not help them to delay sex. But telling kids about the wonders of condoms DOES help them to delay sex.

I call BS.

[Just mythoughts]

How do these people know what teens are doing and thinking. They surely are not asking them these suggestive questions now are they. Kids of today cannot go anyplace even to school and NOT have sex sells in their faces. Look what is sold as clothing these days. BUNCH of perverts and then only focus in on one tiny sliver called abstinence. Where are these kids parents? And who taught these parents to be parents?

[thulldud]

And who taught these parents to be parents?

Axl Rose and Madonna, of course.

[Tax-chick]

Funny how people can always find what they want to find.

[Slapshot68]

it is funny how it almost reads “abstinence doesn’t stop sex.”

[JimRed]

Who can believe the survey results anyway? The boys who don’t will say they do (more “macho”); the girls who do will say they don’t (don’t want to look like tramps).

More secular-progressive nonsense.

[Jessarah]

...gave them greater "confidence in their ability to say 'no' to unwanted sex."

I wonder if it give them greater confidence to say 'no' to wanted sex?

[Long Island Pete]

Study Finds Abstinence-Only Programs Fail to Reduce Teen Sexual Behavior

I thought the idea of abstinence was to reduce teenage pregnancy.

[Tanniker Smith]

No one is allowed to eat in my classroom. But some of these kids have to travel 2 hours to get to my school. So in the morning class, some of them show up with their breakfast (the most important meal of the day, right?). I look at them, and quietly tell them, "If you're going to eat that in my classroom, don't make a mess. Okay?" The nod (their mouth is full).

Principal walks in and sees someone eating. "Why are you eating in the classroom?"
"Mr. Burke says we can."

Keep in mind the first nine words of this post . . .

[joshhiggins]

"At present there does not exist any strong evidence"...

"abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact"

It appears to me that this study is presenting strong bias but no factual evidence.

[joshhiggins]

"the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy".

Yeah right.

[edcoil]

teen pregs are down. how is that not a positive impact?

[ModelBreaker]

more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

Yes. They are wearing the more condoms because they are having sex later. Wearing condoms makes sex less likely. It all makes sense.

[caseinpoint]

If you read the article all the way through, you discover toward the bottom the acknowledgment by the sponsoring group that the group which did the study develops sex education materials for the schools and that some of the materials it “studied” were developed by the group itself. So, yes, I would say there’s a bias. What bothers me is why Fox would publish such a press report where it is clearly an unreliable result.

[Bryan24]

Read this list of their board of directors and trustees. It will tell you everything you need to know about this group.

Board of Directors
Updated July 2007

Click here to download a PDF version of this list.

Chairman

Thomas H. Kean
Chairman
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
former Governor of New Jersey

President

Isabel V. Sawhill, PhD
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
The Brookings Institution

CEO and Treasurer

Sarah S. Brown

Robert Wm. Blum, MD, MPH, PhD
William H. Gates Sr. Professor and Chair
Department of Population and Family Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins University

Linda Chavez
Chairman
Center for Equal Opportunity

Vanessa Cullins, MD, MPH, MBA
Vice President for Medical Affairs
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

Susanne Daniels
President
Lifetime Entertainment Services

Maria Echaveste
Co-Founder
Nueva Vista Group, LLC

Daisy Expósito-Ulla
Chairman and CEO, d’expósito & partners

William Galston, PhD
Senior Fellow, Governance Studies
The Brookings Institution

David R. Gergen
Editor-at-Large
U.S. News & World Report

Ron Haskins
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Co-Director, Center for Children and Families
The Brookings Insitution
Senior Consultant, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Alexine Clement Jackson
Community Volunteer

Nancy L. Johnson
Senior Public Policy Advisor
Federal Public Policy and Healthcare Group
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Sheila C. Johnson, Hon, PhD
CEO
Salamander Farm

Jody Greenstone Miller
President and CEO
The Business Talent Group

Reverend Father Michael D. Place, STD
Vice President, Ministry Development
Ressurection Healthcare

Bruce Rosenblum
President
Warner Bros. Television Group

Stephen W. Sanger
Chairman and CEO
General Mills, Inc.

Victoria P. Sant
President
The Summit Foundation

Sara Seims, PhD
Director, Population Program
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Matthew Stagner, PhD
Executive Director
Chapin Hall Center for Children
University of Chicago

Mary C. Tydings
Managing Director
Russel Reynolds Associates

Roland C. Warren
President
National Fatherhood Initiative

Vincent Weber
Partner
Clark & Weinstock
former U.S. Congressman

Stephen A. Weiswasser
Partner
Covington & Burling

Gail R. Wilensky, PhD
Senior Fellow
Project HOPE

Kimberlydawn Wisdom, MD
Surgeon General, State of Michigan
Vice President, Community Health, Education & Wellness
Henry Ford Health System

Trustees Emeriti

Charlotte Beers
former Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
U.S. Department of State
former Chairman and CEO, Ogilvey & Mather

Carol Mendez Cassell, PhD
Senior Scientist
Allied Health Center, School of Medicine, Prevention Research Center
University of New Mexico

Annette P. Cumming
Executive Director and Vice President
The Cumming Foundation

Frankie Sue Del Papa
former Attorney General
State of Nevada

Whoopi Goldberg
Actress

Stephen Goldsmith
Daniel Paul Professor of Government
John F. Kennedy School of Government
former Mayor of Indianapolis

Katharine Graham (1917-2001)
Chairman
Washington Post Company

David A. Hamburg, MD
President Emeritus
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Visiting Scholar, Weill Medical College
Cornell University

Irving B. Harris (1910-2004)
Chairman
The Harris Foundation

Barbara Huberman
Director of Training
Advocates for Youth

Judith E. Jones
Clinical Professor, Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University

Leslie Kantor
Kantor Consulting

Nancy Kassebaum-Baker
former U.S. Senator

Douglas Kirby, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
ETR Associates

C. Everett Koop, MD
former U.S. Surgeon General

John D. Macomber
Principal
JDM Investment Group

Sister Mary Rose McGeady
former President and CEO
Covenant House

Judy McGrath
Chairman and CEO
MTV Networks

Brent C. Miller, PhD
Vice President for Research
Utah State University

Kristin Moore, PhD
Area Director, Emerging Issues
Child Trends, Inc.

John E. Pepper
CEO
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

Hugh Price
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
The Brookings Insitution

Warren B. Rudman
Senior Counsel
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
former U.S. Senator

Kurt L. Schmoke
Dean, Howard University School of Law
former Mayor of Baltimore

Isabel Stewart
former Executive Director
Girls Inc.

Judy Woodruff
Senior Correspondent
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Andrew Young
Chairman
GoodWorks International
former Ambassador to the U.N.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Does it makes sense that NOT teaching abstinence would actually decrease the rate of teen sex? That’s what this study suggests.

Or is the trick in the way they word the results?

[ReignOfError]

Study Finds Abstinence-Only Programs Fail to Reduce Teen Sexual Behavior

I thought the idea of abstinence was to reduce teenage pregnancy.

Um.

Unless I'm missing something, the only way abstinence-only education can reduce teenage pregnancy is by reducing teenage intercourse. Or encouraging homosexual intercourse instead of heterosexual. Or encouraging sexual behaviors other than intercourse.

This isn't the first study to find flaws in abstinence-only education. I'm more a fan of the belt-and-suspenders approach -- encourage abstinence in the strongest possible terms, of course, but also teach contraception. And don't buy the argument that teaching teenagers about contraception encourages them to have sex -- they need no encouragement.

By way of analogy, imagine an "abstinence-only" approach to driver's ed: "Don't drive like an idiot," end of lesson. As opposed to "don't drive stupid, and always wear a seat belt." Do seat belts encourage stupid driving?

[caseinpoint]

Your analogy is somewhat flawed because wearing a seatbelt is wise advice for both safe and unsafe driving. A closer analogy is if I, as mom, tell my kids “Don’t wander around at night, but if you do go, wear a jacket.” What’s the kid going to hear? As long as I wear a jacket, I can go. They believe I have given permission to wander around so long as they take certain precautions. And it is this wholesale acceptance by the so-called adults of the world that kids will have sex regardless which is destroying these kids. Pregnancies and sexual diseases, while tragic, are not the worse result of this acceptance. Rather it is the destruction of these kids’ ability to create meaningful, lifelong commitments to each other that will cripple this society and the generations to come.