A new comprehensive study shows that sex education delays sexual behavior in teens. The study, which was released this past Wednesday by researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed responses from over 2000 teens, making it the most comprehensive study of its kind on the effects of sexual education.
The research, which was reported this week by ABC news, shows that teens who receive sex education are less likely to have sex before the age of 15. Further, the study confirms that all types of sexual education has a positive effect, whether it is comprehensive, or an abstinence-only program.
Statistically, the study found that teenage boys were 71% less likely to have a sexual experience before age 15 if they had received some type of sexual education at school. Girls within the same age group were 59% less likely to have sex before 15 if they had been exposed to sexual education.
The study also found that having some type of formal sexual education reduced the risk of teens having unprotected sex. Boys in particular were three times more likely to use condoms, though no similar association was found in girls of the same age.
Tricia Mueller of the Center for Disease Control said in a statement, “Sex education should be continued to be supported in formal settings, such as schools, and to be the most effective, should occur before youth engage in sexual intercourse for the first time.”
The study was the most comprehensive analysis of sexual education programs carried out in the United States to date, and presents a clear picture of the benefits of sexual education in lowering teen pregnancy rates, and reducing actually transmitted diseases.
The study seems to put an end once and for all to the mistaken belief that sexual education in schools could “give teens the green light” to have sex earlier. And although similar studies have shown exactly the same outcome in countries as diverse as Canada, United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain, several religious groups in the United States have resisted the idea of formal sexual education for children on the grounds that it could lead to an increase in sexual behavior.
But with experts from around the world hailing the new study by the CDC as the last word on the effectiveness of sexual education in schools, many former skeptics may be finally forced to admit what health experts have been saying for years: sexual education in schools works.
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[...] 1. Start early: Encourage your child to talk and ask questions. Ideally sex education should be given from the beginning in an indirect manner as a child begins to form his impressions early in life. This is the time you need to make the child understand that it is not taboo to mention the word sex. [...]
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