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Abstinence-Plus Sex Education Case Study

1455 Words6 Pages

Most everyone has an opinion of how human sexuality education should be presented to the children in America’s public schools. Parents, teachers, board of education members, community stakeholders, and politicians all have their own ideas of how to keep teen pregnancy rates down in our country. However, even with so much interest in the sex education debate teen pregnancy rates remain the highest in the United States compared to other leading nations (Kohler, 2008). There are two types of sexual education programs used in our schools: abstinence-only education, and a more comprehensive approach labeled abstinence-plus education. Abstinence-only curriculums teach children that they should wait until marriage before having sex. Birth control …show more content…

Although federal funding for abstinence-plus sex education programs is available, there is a stipulation: these programs are still required to project the abstinence message (Kohler, 2008). Abstinence-plus education focuses more on a medical, scientific approach to health education. The moral, ethical, and religious aspects of sex education are not elaborated (Malone, 2011). Still, the question remains: Which sex education program is the most effective at reducing the risk of unwanted pregnancy in teens (Kohler, 2008)? The goal of each of the three studies I reviewed was to “evaluate the current sex-education approach in the United States and to identify the most effect educational approach to reduce the high U.S. teen pregnancy rates” (Stanger-Hall, 2011, p. 2). Within the articles, the studies proved that abstinence-only education does not reduce the risk of teen pregnancy in America. Abstinence-only education is actually linked to increased teen pregnancy rates throughout all three …show more content…

The study showed that 21 of the 48 states department of educations encouraged abstinence-only education, while 11 states stressed abstinence-plus education while teaching abstinence in context. The remaining state education departments did not include abstinence as a policy (Stanger-Hall, 2011). The results of this study were unsurprisingly similar to the results of the other studies reviewed. Abstinence-only education programs correlated with teen pregnancy rates with a positive result, showing that “abstinence-only education in the United States does not cause abstinence behavior” (Stanger-Hall, 2011, p. 4). The study also proved that states were more successful in preventing teen pregnancy when they allowed educators to teach abstinence-plus curricula along with concept of abstinence (Stanger-Hall, 2011). Also, within this study was a survey of public opinion. The survey showed that “82% of randomly selected adults aged 18 to 83 years-old supported comprehensive programs that teach students about both abstinence and other methods of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases” (Stanger-Hall, 2011, p.

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