Sex Education Actually Works

Sex education programs have been found to be persuasive as they discourage many teens from becoming sexually active before age 15, according to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.

The study which was led by Trisha Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC found that teen girls who received sex education were 59% less likely to have sex before age 15 and teenage boys who had sex education in school had a 71% reduced risk of having intercourse before age 15.

The study also found that teen boys who attended school were almost three times more likely to use contraception if they had attended a sex education program, compared to those who had not.

But the survey found that sex education did not seem to have any effect on whether teen girls used birth control. The study by researchers at the CDC was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

However, the study did not take into account the approach of sex education programs- whether they emphasized on abstinence or those that educated about contraception. The researchers focused only on whether the teens had ever attended any sex education program in a formal setting, such as school or church.

Mueller said, "Sex education seems to be working. It seems to be especially effective for populations that are usually at high risk."

The survey found that African-American urban teenage girls who got sex education before their first intercourse had a 91% reduced risk of having sex before age 15. The research also showed that boys living in single-parent households were more likely to delay sex initiation past age 15 if they had attended a sex education class.

Mueller and colleagues examined data from a nationally representative sample of 2,019 teens, aged 15 to 19, who participated in the door-to-door 2002 National Survey of Family Growth.

Researchers categorized age at first sex as over 15 or under, to coordinate with the government's Healthy People 2010 goal of increasing the proportion of teens who abstain from sex until at least age 15.

Bill Albert, deputy director of National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy based in Washington, D.C. said, "First and foremost, the report makes clear that the timing of sex education is quite important. That is, providing sex education to young people at an early age seems quite important in helping delay sexual activity."

Earlier studies, based on data from the 1970s through the 1990s had suggested that sex education did little to persuade teens to delay sex. On the contrary, this study found sex education to be beneficial as according to Mueller, “we were able to control for the sequence of events." That is, the study took into account whether sex education had taken place after sexual activity had begun or not.

Mueller stressed on the fact that "Receiving sex education before the first sexual activity has the most positive outcome."