Washington, Nov 30 (ANI): Including abstinence-only sex education programmes in school curriculum does not lead to reduction in teenage pregnancy but in fact contributes towards higher pregnancy and birth rates, a new study has revealed.
Researchers from the University of Georgia have determined that the States that prescribe to such programmes have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs.
The researchers looked at teen pregnancy and birth data from 48 U.S. states to evaluate the effectiveness of those states' approaches to sex education, as prescribed by local laws and policies.
"Our analysis adds to the overwhelming evidence indicating that abstinence-only education does not reduce teen pregnancy rates," said Kathrin Stanger-Hall, first author on the resulting paper.
Hall said that the study is the first large-scale evidence that the type of sex education provided in public schools has a significant effect on teen pregnancy rates.
"This clearly shows that prescribed abstinence-only education in public schools does not lead to abstinent behaviour," said David Hall, second author.
"It may even contribute to the high teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries."
Along with teen pregnancy rates and sex education methods, Hall and Stanger-Hall looked at the influence of socioeconomic status, education level, access to Medicaid waivers and ethnicity of each state's teen population.
Even when accounting for these factors, which could potentially impact teen pregnancy rates, the significant relationship between sex education methods and teen pregnancy remained: the more strongly abstinence education is emphasized in state laws and policies, the higher the average teenage pregnancy and birth rates.
"Because correlation does not imply causation, our analysis cannot demonstrate that emphasizing abstinence causes increased teen pregnancy. However, if abstinence education reduced teen pregnancy as proponents claim, the correlation would be in the opposite direction," said Stanger-Hall.
Stanger-Hall and Hall conducted this large-scale analysis to provide scientific evidence to inform this decision.
"Advocates for continued abstinence-only education need to ask themselves: If teens don't learn about human reproduction, including safe sexual health practices to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as how to plan their reproductive adult life in school, then when should they learn it and from whom?" said Stanger-Hall.
The study has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)
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