And again, and again, and again
Oh wow. Someone else did a study on kids who had abstinence-only sex ed. Guess what it found?
The kids in the programs and the control groups are exactly the same. Same on when they started having sex (14.9!), same on what they knew (or didn’t know) about condoms - most everything straight down the line.
It is good to see that, at least in this study, the kids were using condoms at the same rate. That didn’t used to be the case. Disturbingly, however, the kids in the abstinence programs more likely to think that condoms never protected against HIV and other STIs. They were also less likely to think that condoms were generally effective against STIs. As I and everyone else has preached time and time again, if you teach them that condoms aren’t effective, they don’t stop having sex - they just stop using condoms.
I’m not sure what’s up with the control group - I don’t have time to read the entire document today (but note that I’m blogging about it anyway. Thanks citizen journalism!). It’s unclear from their ‘Study Sample’ section whether the control kids would get comprehensive sex ed or just no sex ed. A more useful study would probably be comparing what kids who actually get real education know.
So, given that millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars (now $176 million per year, but who’s counting?) have been spent (and apparently wasted) on abstinence-only sex ed, what did the Bush administration have to say for itself today?
Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the study…. Officials said one lesson they learned from the study was that the abstinence message should be reinforced in subsequent years.
I know what you’re thinking: I’ve taken this quote out of context; clearly, it’s about the Iraq War. We couldn’t possibly be mindlessly following the same outrageously wrong-headed trajectory in more than one area. That’s where you’re wrong. Apparently the lesson learned from this study is that abstinence-only should be expanded.
But wait! That’s actually old news. If you’ll remember all the way back to October, abstinence-only money is being offered to target unmarrieds through age 29!
To recap: abstinence-only sex ed is ineffective (yet again), but we will continue to push it to an ever-expanding group of people. Awesome.
The Study [Mathematica-MPR]
Incredibly Frustrated at Her Government and Its Unspeakable Idiocy
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