From yesterday's Statesman:
Researchers at Texas A&M University found that Texas students in almost all high school grades were more sexually active after undergoing abstinence-only programs. The recently released study is the first evaluation of abstinence programs across the state. In discussing the findings, researchers at conservative-leaning Texas A&M sounded apologetic.
"We didn't find what many would like for us to find," said researcher Buzz Pruitt.
Among the findings: About 23 percent of the ninth-grade girls in the study already had sexual intercourse before they received any abstinence education, a figure below the national average. After taking an abstinence course, the number among those same girls rose to 28 percent.
Among ninth-grade boys, the percentage who reported sexual intercourse before and after abstinence education remained relatively unchanged.
In 10th grade, the percentage of boys who said they had had sexual intercourse jumped from 24 percent to 39 percent after participating in an abstinence program.
As I've mentioned before, this is just one of many studies to find that abstinence-only programs can't prove that they have any statistically significant effect on sexual activity among teens. Both the morality crusaders and their well-intentioned-but-naive counterparts in the abstinence-only movement are going to have to face the music eventually. Of course, you'd think the taxpayers would have taken notice by now and objected to the $131 million wasted on these efforts.
Buzz Pruitt is, incidentally, the father of a long-time friend. I'm looking forward to the full report.
Posted by sarah at February 2, 2005 11:51 AM