Good Values Give Good Results
Feb 2nd, 2010 by David Anderson
When you have a real study instead of a poorly designed one funded by the hard left, abstinence based education shines. This is the first real study, in recent years, which tracked a population who took different courses. A number of studies showed the same results, but a much media attention has been given to some recent “studies”, which pulled together statistical abstracts, that cast doubt on their effectiveness. Those studies were designed to influence the funding decisions of the Congress and return the money to the failed programs which led to out of control promiscuity rates. Now we know that nothing is better than “safe” sex education when it comes to experimentation rates (47% to 52%). A well designed abstinence based education swamps both of them and handily beats a “comprehensive program”.
I look forward to those who “embrace science over ideology” joining us in the movement to give our children a strategy to take control of their future.
The study released Monday involved 662 African American students from four public middle schools in a city in the Northeastern United States. It was conducted between 2001 and 2004.
Students were randomly assigned to go through one of the following: an eight-hour curriculum that encouraged them to delay having sex; an eight-hour program focused on teaching safe sex; an eight- or 12-hour program that did both; or an eight-hour program focused on teaching them other ways to be healthy, such as eating well and exercising. The abstinence-only portion involved a series of sessions in which instructors talked to students in small groups about their views about abstinence and their knowledge of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. They also conducted role-playing exercises and brainstorming sessions designed to correct misconceptions about sex and sexually transmitted diseases, encourage abstinence and offer ways to resist pressure to have sex.
Over the next two years, about 33 percent of the students who went through the abstinence program started having sex, compared with about 52 percent who were taught only safe sex. About 42 percent of the students who went through the comprehensive program started having sex, and about 47 percent of those who learned about other ways to be healthy did.
The abstinence program had no negative effects on condom use, which has been a major criticism of the abstinence approach.
Students were randomly assigned to go through one of the following: an eight-hour curriculum that encouraged them to delay having sex; an eight-hour program focused on teaching safe sex; an eight- or 12-hour program that did both; or an eight-hour program focused on teaching them other ways to be healthy
It’s the Hawthorne Effect. Kids who might not ordinarily be getting a lot of positive adult attention, suddenly start getting it, and good things happen.
Ironically, the study supports not “abstinence-only sex ed,” but the need for more enrichment programs inside and outside of school. Midnight basketball, anyone?
The real statistics don’t lie – the national aggregate data on abortions and teen pregnancy.
I went to a very strict Catholic grade school, very conservative small town high school. I credit that upbringing, the guidance of the priests and nuns, the wholesome nurturing of my community. I never even thought about sex until I was around 24.
From then on, once I did break abstinence, I found it to be okay fun. I kept wondering why the Creator would make the desire to reproduce so compulsive that it would be the essence of my being. A lot of guys I knew were suffering the same problem. A tremendous urge to reproduce almost all the time. God does indeed work in mysterious ways. But this desire to reproduce is not good.
I don’t wish in any way for us to thwart The Heavenly Father’s Plan, but . . something does have to be done. With proper indoctrination over a sustained period of time we can break the back of desire to reproduce. Or at least postpone it until we get out of college and have the proper paperwork. Maybe even some kind of genetic modification?
Once we cure the sex drive, we can move on to something like hunger.
When i was a teenager up in wilmington we always pursued the Catholic girls for extra curricular activities . Maybe it was the added benefit that they could absolve themselves of guilt with a Hail Mary or two
COYW lets get the 3 points today and help send Pompey packing.
Then Anon explain the 20% point difference between programs.
Abstinence education increases the inhibition against self-reporting your sexual activity.
Maybe, and it lowered pregnancy rates how? It doesn’t affect self reporting in anonymous surveys as much as it allows people be comfortable with the truth. I didn’t do it and neither did most of my friends. Those who did had no inhibitions about talking about it. When you talk about a 20 point spread, you can’t explain it anyway but the programs are very different. You controlled for culture, income, education, and most other factors. You used the same population and got different results.
Maybe, and it lowered pregnancy rates how?
Your study didn’t measure pregnancy rates; only self-reported sexual behavior.
However, national pregnancy rates went up in 2006, correlated with the impact of abstinence-only education.
I didn’t do it and neither did most of my friends.
This has the ring of truth.