Hormonally challenged teens refrain from abstinence
Billion-dollar sex education a total waste of time
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Teenagers will not refrain from having sex, even if you spend a billion dollars trying to persuade them to keep their trousers zipped and chastity belts locked.
This is the conclusion from a six year study by Mathematica Policy Research into the sexual behaviour of more than 2,000 teenagers across four states, and a variety of social groups.
The researchers sliced the data into two sets: those who participated in so-called chastity education programmes, in which only abstinence is suggested as a form of birth control, and those who did not, and had access to traditional sex education programmes.
The average age at which the teens reported having sex for the first time was identical: 14.9 years.
Neither group showed more inclination than the other to use contraception, either. Of those who said they'd had sex in the last year, 23 per cent in both groups said they always used a condom, 17 per cent only sometimes using a condom, and four per cent never did.
The number of partners was the same, too, with a quarter of teenagers in both groups reporting having had at least three sexual partners.
The abstinence programme has been a central part of the Bush administration's social policy, and the government has poured about a billion dollars into it over the last 10 years.
But the research would seem to suggest that the money has not been well spent. All that has happened is that teenagers are pledging not to have sex, getting their nice little silver rings, and then shagging like rabbits anyway. ®
COMMENTS
Teach them to play D&D
Get early teens interested in SF/F and D&D and they won't get laid until they hit college ("There's a time and a place for everything kids and it's called college." –Chef).
To Slaine:
The control groups are AT EACH SCHOOL, not one program being a control group for another, which would indeed be silly. I suggest that you try reading at least the summary and not just glancing at the tables.
The point is that these programs do not make teenagers less likely to have sex than their peers.
Whiners annoy you?
Smartarses annoy me!
According to the article:
"Of those who said they'd had sex in the last year, 23 per cent ....."
Which makes it pretty clear that 44% are not accounted for. My assumption was that they were too busy bonking to answer silly questions. I have a life and could not be bothered to google for the original story :)
Steve
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