Why does abstinence only education work

Both papers are published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. These programs simply do not prepare young people to avoid unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. To study current U. They report that a rapidly rising age of first marriage has translated to shrinking numbers of young people who abstain from sex before getting married. In the U. Abstinence-only-until-marriage approaches have set back sex education, family planning, and HIV-prevention efforts.

Mathematica Policy Research Santelli JS, et al. Guttmacher Institute. Policies and Programs and Their Impact. Journal of Adolescent Health, 61 e Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs fact sheet. Hauser, D. Advocates for Youth. Stanger-Hall, K.

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Stein R. Abstinence-only programs might work, study says. Washington Post. The Journal of adolescent health. Kirby, D. Sex Res Soc Policy 5: S Denford et al. Health Psychol Rev 11 1 , Chin, Helen B. Usually excludes any information about the effectiveness of contraception or condoms to prevent unintended pregnancy and STIs. Sometimes must adhere to the 8-point federal definition Table 3. Comprehensive Sex Education — Provides medically accurate age-appropriate information about abstinence, as well as safer sex practices including contraception and condoms as effective ways to reduce unintended pregnancy and STIs.

Comprehensive programs also usually include information about healthy relationships, communication skills, and human development, among other topics.

Topics Women's Health Policy. Tags Reproductive Health Family Planning. All programs must adhere to the federal A-H definition, and states must match every four federal dollars with three state dollars. Information about contraceptives and condoms may not be provided unless to emphasize failure rates. While short-term findings showed some shift in attitudes about delaying sex, findings over the longer term indicated no difference between the abstinence-only groups and the control groups.

Says Dr. Maynard, "There were some indications that you would change knowledge and values that would delay onset of sexual activity. You could change what kids would tell you about their values and their expectations - that they would wait until they were older or married until they had sex. An early analysis by his organization showed some attitude shifts toward delaying sex among students in the abstinence programs, but those differences disappeared as students got older.

One thing they also learned, Trenholm said, was that kids receiving abstinence instruction did not use condoms less often than other kids, a possibility that critics occasionally raise.