“Emerging Answers 2007,” a study released this week by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, found that abstinence-only education is unproven for stopping teen sex, while programs that both discuss contraceptives and urge teens to wait have better track records, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Many studies have shown that combining the abstinence message with explicit discussions of birth control “is a realistic, effective approach that does not appear to confuse young people,” Dr. Kirby [a researcher for the study] said in a report for a nonpartisan group that tries to reduce teen pregnancies.

In his review, Dr. Kirby said, “Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavioral effects,” such as delaying the start of sexual activity and increasing use of condoms or other birth control.

But not everyone agrees. According to the article, Kyleen Wright of Mansfield, president of the Irving-based Texans for Life Coalition, said that contraception instruction was tried in the schools in the 1980s and didn’t work.

Dr. Kirby’s report was based on a review of 115 studies of teenager sexual behavior. Although Kirby said abstinence-alone instruction is largely unproven, he shied away from a sweeping denunciation, according to the article. Kirby said two studies had found “weak but encouraging results” from abstinence programs in Ohio and Arkansas. However, he said more efforts to duplicate and study them are needed.

Other findings from the report:

• More than 80 percent of U.S. adults believe that comprehensive sex education programs, which emphasize abstinence, but also encourage condom and contraceptive use, should be implemented in schools.
• Over 40 percent of comprehensive sex education programs delayed the initiation of sex, reduced the number of sexual partners, and increased condom or contraceptive use; almost 30 percent reduced the frequency of sex (including a return to abstinence); and more than 60 percent reduced unprotected sex. Furthermore, nearly 40 percent of the programs had positive effects on more than one of these behaviors.
• No comprehensive program hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of sex, results that many people fear.
• There are no definite conclusions yet about whether video- and computer-based instruction can change teens’ sexual behavior. But three studies suggest that short, noninteractive videos alone may not have any effect on behavior, and that long, interactive videos that are viewed several times may have an impact on some behavior, possibly for as long as six months.

You can read the full report or the summary. Also, there are additional resources about the study on The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy’s Web site.

For additional reading…This is not the first study to question abstinence-only education’s impact on teen sexual behavior. Released this past spring, a major federally funded study concluded that abstinence-only programs do not appear to have any effect on sexual abstinence among youth, nor on age of sexual initiation or number of sex partners.

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