Comprehensive Sex Education Reduces Teen Pregnancies New research shows abstinence-only programs are less effective.

摘要

Heterosexual teens who receive comprehensive sex education are about half as likely to report pregnancy as teens who receive abstinence-only or no sex education, according to University of Washington researchers.Kohler and colleagues examined the responses of 1,719 teens, ages 15 to 19, who participated in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. About two-thirds of teens received comprehensive sex education, a quarter had abstinence-only education, and 9% reported no sex education. Teens who received comprehensive sex education were 60% less likely to report becoming pregnant or impregnating someone than teens with no sex education, and they were 50% less likely to report pregnancies than teens with abstinence-only education. With no sex education used as the reference point, neither abstinence-only nor comprehensive sex education reduced the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.