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Parenting > Parenting Teens

Teaching Kids to Delay Sex
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Safe-sex education has become the norm in most American public schools.  In fact, an astounding 82% of parents polled supported this educational effort.  However, recent findings published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine indicate that an abstinence-only education program seems to be more effective in the long run. 

The study was conducted and focused on a group of sixth and seventh graders over a period of two years.  In the study, one group of students was exposed to the "safe-sex" based education.  At the end of the two year period, the findings showed that more than half of those students had engaged in sexual activity before the study had even concluded. Another group of students was exposed to lessons regarding overall good health in which sex was mentioned.  About 47 percent of those students reported having sex in the same two-year time frame.

The final group of students received an abstinence-only (does not include the mention of birth control other than to explain their limitations) approach to their sex education.  At the end of their two-year mark, only one third of those students reported engaging in sexual activities.  The results are surprisingly conclusive.  Teaching children to delay sex is statistically more effective and successful than a program of safe sex.  In fact, lead researcher, Dr. John Jemmott, professor of Communication in Psychiatry and of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "It is extremely important to find an effective intervention that delays sexual activity."  He also said, "Abstinence-only interventions may have an important role in delaying sexual activity until a time later in life when the adolescent is more prepared to handle the consequences of sex."

Unfortunately, national public funding for abstinence-only education programs was recently cut.  If you would like to see this kind of success in the lives of your tweens and teens, you will need to open an honest dialogue with your child about sex.  Start with the questions in our companion article, What Your Teen Thinks about Sex.

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