Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Univ. of Penn Study Reports Effectiveness of Abstinence-Only Education

You may have seen news reports this week about a new University of Pennsylvania study, published in the February, 2010, issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The study by John Jemmott, III, Ph.D. and two other colleagues shows what absinence proponents already know: abstinence-only programs for youth work better to prevent or delay sexual activity than other alternatives. Here's an overview:

Six hundred sixty-two urban African-American kids, both boys and girls, with an average age of 12.2 years, were part of a randomized controlled trial. Some kids received eight hours of character-based, abstinence-only instruction, similar to what is presented in OFPC's KEEP Program. Other children got eight hours of safer sex/condom use instruction. Still others got eight to 12 hours of a comprehensive sex education (CSE) program. Finally, other youth received eight hours of instruction in just a general health promotion course, which did not mention sexuality or contraception at all.

Two years later, only one-third of students who had received the abstinence-only course self-reported having had sexual intercouse, compared with about half of the control group. According to researchers, abstinence-only worked well with these inner-city kids! The other kids that got comprehensive sex ed instruction had just as much sex as the control group; CSE showed no effectiveness to prevent or delay sexual intercourse, although CSE did reduce students' self-reports of having multiple sexual partners.

Here's the significance: the Penn study shows early intervention is important and effective among urban youth to decrease sexual intercourse, STDs, HIV, and pregnancies, and for a long period, in this case two years, following the intervention.

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