Curriculum

Studies Cite Effects of Abstinence Programs

By Vaishali Honawar — June 21, 2005 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Abstinence-based programs of sex education help make younger students more aware of the potential negative consequences of nonmarital sex but do not improve their self-esteem, refusal skills, or communication with their parents regarding sex, a federally financed study released last week suggests.

The study, conducted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by researchers at Mathematica Policy Research Inc., in Princeton, N.J., and the University of Pennsylvania, scrutinized data on elementary and middle school students in four abstinence programs nationwide that receive federal funding, as well as on their peers who received a variety of other forms of sex education at school or from community-based providers.

The study did not examine the impact of the programs on the sexual behaviors of participants, who ranged from 3rd to 8th graders.

The authors found that students in abstinence-based programs had views more supportive of sexual abstinence and less supportive of teenage sex than those who were not enrolled in such programs. The report says there is also some evidence that the programs increased expectations among the students that they would abstain from sex and not date as much as their peers.

“First Year Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs” is available from Mathematica Policy Research.

The Heritage Foundation posts its June 2005 report, “Adolescent Virginity Pledges, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Adults.”

“Adolescent Virginity Pledges and Risky Sexual Behaviors” is posted by The Heritage Foundation.

But researchers acknowledged that the study’s scope was limited because of the young ages of the participants, who in one of the four programs examined were as young as age 10.

“At this stage, on this measure, it is difficult for us to assess whether the programs have had an effect on whether the [students] will abstain in the future,” said the project’s director, Christopher Trenholm of Mathematica. “What we don’t know is … if we change expectations, will we see changes in behavior?”

Sex education built around a strictly pro-abstinence message has come under increasing scrutiny, given the Bush administration’s high-profile support for such programs, despite questions from many researchers and educators about their effectiveness. President Bush is seeking $206 million for abstinence-based programs in fiscal 2006, a 23 percent increase over the current year.

Two other reports released last week by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, argue for the benefits of abstinence education. Reanalyzing data used in a previous study, they concluded that young people who pledged to keep their virginity were less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and had lower rates of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases than their peers who did not make such pledges.

New View of Data

The Heritage reports seek to refute a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. That study, from professors at Columbia and Yale universities, found that teenagers who pledged to abstain from sex before marriage still engaged in certain sexual behaviors, and as a result contracted venereal diseases at rates similar to those of nonpledgers. (“Study: Pledgers of Sex Abstinence Still at Risk of STDs,” March 30, 2005.)

While the Heritage studies used the same data from the federal National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health as the Columbia and Yale authors, they came up with different conclusions.

Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson of Heritage found that, on average, individuals who took virginity pledges as adolescents were 25 percent less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases as young adults than nonpledgers from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Pledgers were also less likely to have sex in high school or have children out of wedlock.

It is common sense, Mr. Rector said, that because virginity pledgers are more likely to abstain from sex or have fewer sexual partners, they are less likely to contract STDs.

“Throughout our analysis, taking a virginity pledge was a more surefire way of reducing STDs than condom use,” he said.

Hannah Bruckner, an associate professor of sociology at Yale University and one of the two authors of the report in the Journal of Adolescent Health, said that the Heritage study has not yet been peer-reviewed and the researchers’ analyses would have difficulty satisfying the standards for publication in such a journal.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in Schools
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by Panorama Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Science Webinar
Spark Minds, Reignite Students & Teachers: STEM’s Role in Supporting Presence and Engagement
Is your district struggling with chronic absenteeism? Discover how STEM can reignite students' and teachers' passion for learning.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Recruitment & Retention Webinar EdRecruiter 2025 Survey Results: The Outlook for Recruitment and Retention
See exclusive findings from EdWeek’s nationwide survey of K-12 job seekers and district HR professionals on recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction. 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Curriculum Inside a Class Teaching Teens to Stop Scrolling and Think Critically
The course helps students learn to determine what’s true online so they can be more informed citizens.
9 min read
Teacher Brie Wattier leads a 7th and 8th grade social studies class at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School for a classroom discussion on the credibility of social media posts and AI-generated imagery on Nov. 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
Teacher Brie Wattier leads an 8th grade social studies class at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School for a classroom discussion on the credibility of social media posts and AI-generated imagery on Nov. 19, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Courtesy of Dylan Singleton/University of Maryland
Curriculum Inside the Effort to Shed Light on Districts' Curriculum Choices
Few states make the information easily searchable.
4 min read
Image of a U.S. map with conceptual data points.
iStock/Getty
Curriculum Texas Students May Soon Be Reading Bible Stories in English Classes
The state has advanced a controversial curriculum that includes Christian teachings in K-5 lessons.
5 min read
A Texas flag is displayed in an elementary school in Murphy, Texas, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020.
A Texas flag is displayed in an elementary school in Murphy, Texas, in 2020.
LM Otero/AP
Curriculum Holy Excrement! How Poop and Other Kid Fascinations Can Ignite a Passion for STEM
Here's how teachers can incorporate students' existing interests into the curriculum.
6 min read
STEM
Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week via Canva