Abstinence?

[Bravus]

Abstinence? No thanks, we'll have sex

With everyone from George Bush to Hillary Clinton touting the wonder-working power of abstinence education, it might be nice to know whether such programs actually work. There's news out of Texas on that front: They don't.

In a study commissioned by the Texas Department of State Health Services, researchers at Texas A&M University found that abstinence-only programs in 29 Texas high schools seemed to have absolutely no impact on whether teens engaged in sex.

As Reuters explains, the study showed that about 23 percent of ninth-grade girls reported having sex before receiving abstinence education. After receiving the education, about 29 percent of the girls in the same group said they had had sex. For boys, the increase was more dramatic. Twenty-four percent said they had sex before taking the classes, while 39 percent said they had sex after the classes were over. The increases in sexual activity mirrored trends in the state generally as teens get older, suggesting that the abstinence programs had done nothing to prevent teen sex or the unwanted pregnancies it can produce.

"We didn't see any strong indications that these programs were having an impact in the direction desired," researcher Buzz Pruitt told Reuters. "These programs seem to be much more concerned about politics than kids, and we need to get over that."

-- Tim Grieve

(from Salon.com)

[Gail]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

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

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Either that or kids are influenced more by other factors than by what they are fed in school...

[Dr. Shane]

Remember when you hear the words "solon.com" the words "bias news with an agenda" need to be not too far behind.

The news is made bias by selective reporting. There have been other abstanence programs, specifically in Virgina, that have shown results. A balanced news agency would tell the whole story and not just the part that supports their bias, preconcived ideas.

[Bravus]

Shane - it's actually 'biased' rather than 'bias' in all of the places you used it in that message. I try not to correct people, but it's a term you need quite frequently, so I thought I'd do it this time. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yep, it's just one story. I think the answert is more in your thread in Town Hall though: abstinence is something that is more likely to be effectively learned at home than at school. School can try, and it's probably a useful thing to try, but (sadly) probably 20-some percent fail math too...

I would hope that the kids are getting encouraged to be abstinent at home too, but that they're also getting good advice about birth control and STD prevention at home. They shouldn't be having sex, but if they do, condoms are better than abortions and AIDS. That's my beef with abstinence-*only* sex ed programs.

[Amelia]

And here I thought that abstinence made the heart grow fonder.