A Promising Study

Supporters of abstinence-only have been touting the results of a recent study that showed better results with such a program than with the comprehensive approach favored by others. And, following years in the Bush administration in which abstinence-only funding gained steam and popularity, national teen births ticked upward.

In the first event, there is a lesson to be learned — just not precisely the one the abstinence-only folks claim. In the second, we have yet another reminder that, despite more promising statistical trends locally, this is no time to let down our guard.

About the study. The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reported that 662 African-American sixth- and seventh-graders were divided into four different sex ed programs — eight hours of abstinence only, eight hours of safer sex only, eight to 12 hours of a program that combined both and an eight-hour program on non-sex-related health issues.

The study tracked the youngsters and found that the abstinence-only program achieved the best results: 33% having sex over the next two years; 42 percent for the comprehensive program.

Here's what to keep in mind (besides that none of these results are what anyone should call sterling).

Even the study's authors say no one should pin a strategy on any one study. The abstinence-only here featured a non-moralizing approach — waiting until you're ready, for instance, rather than waiting for marriage. And it also did not affect condom use — a safe-sex option.

It's interesting that abstinence-only boosters have latched onto this study as validation, though the approach differs from many such programs. Meanwhile, the boosters for comprehensive sex ed are expressing interest in a way of teaching abstinence better through evidence-based strategies, though not willing to jettison other evidence-based tools in the tool belt based on one study.

That's where we end up as well. Intrigued but thankful that the state Senate just approved a Healthy Youth Act mandating that, if a school district teaches sex ed, it take a comprehensive approach, including abstinence.

And we view the increase in teen births nationally as even more reason to proceed with the full tool belt approach.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.

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