What Have You Been Taught About Sex and Abstinence?
By HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO
A new study shows that some types of abstinence education can work in certain ways. What kind of sex education have you had? Do you think it is effective?
A Times editorial outlines the study and its findings, and argues that only certain types of abstinence teaching work:
The ongoing debate over sex education has been rekindled by a provocative new study suggesting that teaching abstinence can delay the start of sexual activity among inner-city youngsters — if it is freed from the moralistic overtones and ideological restrictions that were the hallmark of abstinence-only programs under the Bush administration. […]
The only program that successfully delayed the start of sexual activity was the abstinence-only instruction. By the end of two years, only a third of the abstinence-only group had engaged in sexual intercourse compared with almost half of the control group. [...]
The new study will need to be replicated in older teenagers and other ethnic groups to see if the findings are broadly relevant, and teenagers will need to be followed long enough to measure the effects in avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. No single approach will suffice to reduce sexual activity in all teenagers, but the new study suggests that there is a sensible, effective way to teach abstinence.
Students: Tell us about what you have you been taught about sex, both in school and at home. Has what you have been told by your teachers and parents affected your decisions about sex? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.
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