Jay GW

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Abstinence-only sex education programs, a major plank in President Bush's education plan, have had no impact on teenagers' behavior in his home state of Texas, according to a new study.

Despite taking courses emphasizing abstinence-only themes, teenagers in 29 high schools became increasingly sexually active, mirroring the overall state trends, according to the study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University.

"We didn't see any strong indications that these programs were having an impact in the direction desired," said Dr. Buzz Pruitt, who directed the study.

The study was delivered to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which commissioned it.

The federal government is expected to spend about $130 million to fund programs advocating abstinence in 2005, despite a lack of evidence that they work, Pruitt said.

"The jury is still out, but most of what we've discovered shows there's no evidence the large amount of money spent is having an effect," he said.

The study showed about 23 percent of ninth-grade girls, typically 13 to 14 years old, had sex before receiving abstinence education. After taking the course, 29 percent of the girls in the same group said they had had sex.

Boys in the tenth grade, about 14 to 15 years old, showed a more marked increase, from 24 percent to 39 percent, after receiving abstinence education.

Abstinence-only programs, which have sprouted up in schools across the nation, cannot offer information about birth control and must promote the social and health benefits of abstaining from sex.

Pruitt said he hoped the study would bring about changes in the content of abstinence-promoting programs.

"These programs seem to be much more concerned about politics than kids, and we need to get over that," he said.

One program technique has been to try to bolster students' self-esteem, based on the theory that self-confident teenagers would not have sex. Those programs, which sometimes do not even mention sex, have shown no effect, Pruitt said.

Other programs that focus on the social norms and expectations appear to be more successful, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nce_texas_dc_1

George Oilwell

I posted an article about this on another website that has since closed down and the conservatives attacked me by saying stupid things like "you talk about abstinence as if it's a bad thing", while completely missing the point.

Conservatives just won't get it :banghead:

Rudolph

This always makes me laugh. To deny such a strong human urge is ridiculous, and more or less amounts to denying one's own humanity!
The problem of course is teenage pregnancy rates, but when will they learn that what's needed is proper education and access to free or very cheap contraception?
Since when have teenagers been put off from doing something beause it is frowned upon/not allowed/illegal? That's what growing up is all about (or should be all about): breaking the rules!

Jay GW

What is proper education? Ho do you know that contraception available in schools works to cut stds?

Prince Vegita

This cracks me up. I seem to remember so much conservative poo-pooing of "self esteem" not too many years ago, including snide remarks about how liberals will go to such lengths to avoid making children feel bad that soon soccer will consist of all the kids on one team, no goals, and the kids just kicking the ball to each other while the parents cheer. My father-in-law, ladies and gentlemen.

:rolling: :rolling: :rolling:

JustBlazed

Better yet, how do you know it DOESN'T?! I can show you study after study that shows you that condoms can and DO prevent STD's.

Proper education goes like this...

- At about the age of 13 you are going to get horny. (awareness of what is happening to a young body is good)
- Understand that having sexual relations is a very grown up thing, and you are growing up. (show them the maturity factor involved)
- Here is a pack of condoms IN CASE you are sexual active, this will help you prevent STD's and pregnancy. (show them the responsible way to have sex)
- Since you are a human and will most likely have sexual urges, would you also like to do even MORE to prevent an unwanted pregnancy? There are birth control options for you too. (go over these with young women, giving ALL options including the pill, depo provera, etc.)

Do you have a better option to stop raging hormones? I didn't think so.

J-D

Abstinence education works! It makes the people who advocate and organise it feel good about themselves.

That's what it's for, isn't it?

NotQuite

Being fairly young I can still remember the sex education I received in middle school. It was laughable at the very best. A friend and I were already not virgins when they started pouring on the no sex thing. My friend I think said it best, "If I abstain from sex how am I going to get laid?".

Latter on in highschool when girls started to have babies (I think out of 300 some students in my highschool there were 15 parents) the majority of the mothers and fathers were the types that in middle school took the sex ed as acctually worth the paper it was printed on.-NQ-

kenni

I coulda told everyone that 3 years ago; I have that stupid abstinence-based education at my school too (i think that's been in their cirriculum for at least a half dozen years now). Anyway, all they do is describe all the horrible diseases you can get if you have sex, show us scare-tactic videos who've gotten diseases/pregnant, make us do book work about STDs & pregnancy gone wrong and all that kind of crap. It's so stupid. I think I heard the word 'condom' or 'contraceptive' less than 10 times in the entire 3 (or so) weeks we had the classes. So now I basically have a sub-standard knowlege of safe-sex. :huh:

They also had a poster thing with drawings of penises and vaginas and babies with diseases. Pretty nasty (and pathetic really). All that made me wanna do was burn down the school and have sex in the ashes :devil3:

Jayjay

I'd like to add one more item to that list:

- Tell them that it's ok to masturbate and have oral sex (although pointing out that some std's are transmitted orally as well), and you don't need to have an intercourse to get yourself or your partner off.