Reduce Teen Pregnancy

Fortunately, there is a new research study suggesting that comprehensive sex education may lead to less teenage pregnancies.  Also, parents should not fear because there is no indication that teaching kids about sex will boost sexually transmitted diseases or increase sexual intercourse levels.

To support this, Pamela Kohler, the study lead author and program manager working at Seattle’s University of Washington, said that “Aside from teaching abstinence, it’s not harmful to teach teenagers about birth control.”

Study Results

Upon examining the results of the national survey focused on 15-19 year old heterosexual teens (2002), Kohler and her colleagues found that two-thirds of the teens received comprehensive instruction with birth control discussion, 1 in 4 received abstinence-only education, while 9% received no education about sex at all (especially the poor or those living in rural areas).

For the teens who have received comprehensive sex education, they were 60% less likely to report that they became pregnant or impregnated someone compared to those who did not study sex education.  And for those who were educated to abstain, the incidence of pregnancy was 30% lower compared again to those who were not educated about sex at all.

However, researchers believe that the result on abstinence-only education was statistically insignificant because in the categories they analyzed, only few teens fit into it.  In addition, neither approach reduced the likelihood of sexually transmitted diseases, but then again, the results were not really statistically significant.

These results were based from the responses of 1,719 teens, and appeared in “Journal of Adolescent Health.”  One thing is clear, the survey results have proven that teaching comprehensive sex education is the best way to prevent or reduce teenage pregnancies.

Implementation Procedure

But although the study has provided evidence that comprehensive sex education has more value than abstinence-only approach, it did not show the educators how they should implement this type of education in the classroom.

A professor at England’s Oxford University, Don Operario, Ph.D., said “To maximize community acceptability and audience comprehension, we need to understand better how to deliver sex education in the most effective way possible.”  Through creating a common standard of implementation across the nation, teenage pregnancies can truly be reduced significantly.