Abstinence Education

Gone are the days of the chastity belt! This morning I sat down to breakfast and "Catholic New York" was sitting at the table with me. I flipped through, reading some editorials and articles. The last editorial I turned to was titled, "Abstinence Education Works." If you've read my earlier blog about education and healthy relationships, you know I couldn't help but read this.

Apparently, this is the most significant study done on the topic so far. The study was led by Dr. John Jemmott from the University of

Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and was published this past month in the journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The two year study randomly placed 662 African American middle school students in different types of sex ed programs. There was a group that participated in an abstinence only education program, safer sex program focused on increased condom use, programs focused on sexual intercourse and condom use, and a health program with no focus on sexual intercourse.

The abstinence only program did NOT focus on saving sex for marriage but taught about HIV, beliefs about abstinence, and ways to resist

pressures to have sex. According to Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the study "was not negative about contraception, it was not negative about sex." As I was reading through other articles and opinions about

this study and other abstinence only programs, there were some who were strongly opposed to abstinence only programs because they did not give students the whole picture about sex. Some, like blogger Rebecca Walker who has a fairly comprehensive critique on her blog, believe that abstinence only programs are used to indoctrinate young people to a specific moral belief.

Even as a Catholic, I can understand these criticisms. But, it seems that, through this study abstinence can be treated as any other sex ed topic, without moral or ethical impositions.

Difficult though it may be, one can discuss abstinence just as logically as the steps for sexual intercourse, the process for using a condom, the consequences of sexual intercourse.

It also seems to make sense that we would want students to be aware of all of their options and be we well educated with each on order to make the best decisions. This would include the method of abstinence. As it is with all skills, one must practice how to apply a skill and teaching students ways to effectively practice abstinence seems to make sense if we are also teaching them how to effectively use a condom. It's one

thing to give students who want to have sex information about how to do that, but what about the students who are inundated with images and peer pressure around sex, but don't want to have sex yet? We have to give them something better than, "Wait for someone really special," or, "It should be saved for marriage," especially if the student does not subscribe to a particular religious, moral, or cultural practice that requires them to do such.

So, the results: 1/3 of the students who were in the abstinence only programs became sexually active within the next two years while about 1/2 of those who were in the other programs

became sexually active. This may not seem like a huge difference, but it does seem to at least bring to the table more consideration for the legitimacy of a more comprehensive abstinence education that is unattached to specific religious or moral dispositions.

This is a small step, and the writers of the study encourage more research to be done. I'd be interested to see how this works across all racial and socio-economic groups. The folks leading the study specifically chose African American youth because they said, according to studies, African American youth have a higher tendency to become sexually active earlier than other groups. Whether or not this is true, this study should be done across all groups. African Americans are not the only group facing this issue. It would be beneficial to see the results on a broader scale. I'd also be interested in hearing some of the more qualitative data about why students chose to become or not become sexually active after the different types of sex ed they received. I'd also like to know whether all the different types of sex ed programs used were taught by excellent teachers across the board and whether the curriculum of each was engaging.

I'm sure they write about this in the report, but I'd certainly like to know about it.

Before, people did not have as much of a choice about their sexual activity, now they have so many choices it can be confusing. Hopefully, we can develop a plan that can give students information about all of the choices and possibilities that they have.