Study suggesting effectiveness of Abstience-only education

[piercehawkeye45]

A new study suggests that if done without religious overtones, abstinence-only education is more effective at delaying sexual activity among adolescence than safe sex or a combination of safe sex and abstinence.

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.

It would be a mistake to place too much importance on a single study of black middle-school students in Philadelphia, but the study appears to be sound and its findings are worth further exploration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/opinion/08mon1.html


I think this study is quite interesting but one very large aspect it leaves out is whether this program has an effect on the number adolescence that perform safe sex. I believe that STIs and early pregnancies are the real issues that should be focused on and I would personally prefer to see a safe sex program that is ineffective at delaying sex but successful at encouraging safe sex over this abstinence-only program if it does not have a positive effect on condom use.

It also must be noted that this is a single study and more studies need to be performed with more detail for this method to be taken seriously.