Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex

[LiberalFighter]

Source: Yahoo (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts — 14 years and nine months, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don't believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement.

However, Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the study. They said the four programs reviewed — among several hundred across the nation — were some of the very first established after Congress overhauled the nation's welfare laws in 1996.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_go_ot/abstinence_study

[sakabatou]

1. People have beeing saying that for years

Why do people say it still does?

[depakid]

3. Same reason that they deny global warming

or anything else that runs counter to their irrational beliefs.

That's what ideologues do- evidence means nothing to them.

[bamacrat]

2. Well duh, kids will do anything they are told not to.

Its the dumbest method there is. Abstinence, yeah thats awesome

[RamboLiberal]

4. Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts - 14 years and nine months, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don't believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement.

However, Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the study. They said the four programs reviewed - among several hundred across the nation - were some of the very first established after Congress overhauled the nation's welfare laws in 1996.



Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Abstinence_Study.html

[va4wilderness]

5. Enforced abstinence just makes you want to do it more

When you get home.

Don't they understand human nature?

[Deep13]

6. I think I read about this in Duh! magazine.

:eyes:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. If Bushco doesn't stop this

they'll go blind.

[sutz12]

12. Aren't they already? nt

[Spinzonner]

8. Actually they do

but only if you keep them in class 24x7

[Paula Sims]

11. Haven't you heard of the video of the teacher and the principal?

Apparently in suburban Chicago a teacher and the principal were filmed "not being abstinent" and the DVD was sent to all the parents. Guess that doesn't work either!

[regnaD kciN]

16. Actually, that MIGHT work...

Having to watch one of your teachers and the principal doing the horizontal mambo might be enough to get some kids to swear off sex forever. :evilgrin:

[AnneD]

26. Just the thought that my parents had sex

more than 4 times was enough to put me off of sex until college. Then I realized they did it in total darkness, fully clothed, so then it was ok.;)

[modrepub]

9. Saw a survey

in a health mag that 9 out of 10 couples/people had premarital sex. This ratio has been steady since the 1940s. I'll see if I can dredge this up. As much as the RR would like us to believe, we are no more sexually active now than we have been in the past. In other words the myth of people not having sex in "the good old days" doesn't have merit.

P.S. I fall in as one of the nine...>:-)

[regnaD kciN]

17. Actually, it's more than that...

The survey I'm thinking of showed that only 4% of surveyed couples were both virgins when they got married. Interestingly, of those couples where only one was a virgin, it turned out to be the man more often than the woman.

[dogfacedboy]

10. Duuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! What kind of idiot thinks it would?!? n/t

[Cleita]

13. Yes, the nine pregnant girls in my senior graduation class

from Catholic High School is a testament to the fact that abstinence doesn't work and it was in the days before unmarried people could get access to contraceptives, let alone teenagers.

[CBHagman]

28. Ouch! That's some syntax you got there.

...it was in the days before unmarried people could get access to contraceptives, let alone teenagers.

[KansDem]

14. As the saying goes: "Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder"

;)

[fshrink]

15. Abstinence classes dont stop hunger either.

We'll wait patiently for the study to be really sure.

[Matsubara]

31. Why would anyone want to stop sex?

Since when are we agreed as a society that nbobody under the age of 18 should ever have sex?

I'm no spring chicken, but at 19, I was the LAST of my friends to lose my virginity and I wish I hadn't waited so long.

Our society's sex-negative attitude is absurd.

Arm kids over say 15 with education (including education about dealing with the emotional aspects of sex and the dangers of being exploited) and access to contraception and let them make their own choices about their own bodies.

[Solly Mack]

18. Abstinence class is where they met their "first"

[woodsprite]

19. There was a headline saying that our schools (DE) have

voted against accepting the funding for abstinance classes. YEAH!!! I have a daughter going into high school and I'm glad she won't have to put up with that hogwash.

[krispos42]

20. They just didn't teach it hard enough

We need an extra ten billion or so to REALLY slam it into the kid's heads!

Oh, and we're going to need little insertable traps to put in all the students' orafices, just in case they slip up and slip in, yanno? That'll teach'em.

[mark414]

21. this just in: water is wet

:crazy:

[superconnected]

22. Darn, I was hoping the republicans were taking them.

Less republican sex, less republican kids.

[wallwriter]

23. Chess Club stopped sex pretty effectively...nt

[txaslftist]

33. Dungeons and Dragons did it for me.

[txaslftist]

34. Not that I regret it.

[jakem]

24. Simple solution. Let 13 year olds marry.

Might as well, they may well be enlisted and killed at 17.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. nor do those virginity pledge balls.

in fact those poor girls who attend those creepy events have a higher rate of anal sex, STDs and pregnancies.

[Jamastiene]

48. Those things are just plain creepy too. n/t

[CBHagman]

27. Pepper Schwartz said as much in The New York Times.

For those of you who missed it, this week the entire New York Times Tuesday science section was devoted to sex.

This particular interview made me wonder why the hell we've let our government spend millions of our tax dollars on abstinence education. And Laura Bush, nothing personal, but DO SHUT UP about "teaching abstinence." I humbly submit your own offspring didn't get the memo.

But I digress. Here's the scoop:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/health/10conv.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Q. Today you teach a course for 700 undergraduates at the University of Washington — the sociology of sex. Are your students different from your college peers in the 1960s?

A. So different. They are sexually active and they are not as moralistic. To be a nonvirgin when I was starting out was suspect and usually stigmatized. To be a virgin now is suspect and stigmatized.

What I find telling is that about half my students had abstinence education in high school, and yet they are active. In class, they seem hungry for good information. They want to know about technique, about being good partners. The girls are out there as much as the boys. They ask forthright questions that would have embarrassed my peers. This openness is pleasing. It’s also something I couldn’t have imagined 40 years ago.

Gee, you mean there were more abstainers among us baby boomers? Somebody tell Ed Meese.

[truthisfreedom]

29. "However, the bush administration cautioned against using scientific evidence as a basis for making

decisions about policy of any kind, citing past precedent."

[rocktivity]

30. Candidate for this month's "You Call This NEWS?" award

Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest--espeically when you're at the age when you're pulling away from your parents.

:headbang:
rocknation

[txaslftist]

32. But apparently bovine growth hormone in beef does...

since we're looking at options and all...

[Nikia]

35. Maybe, I'm a Puritain, but 14y 9 months as an average is a little disturbing

Considering that many teenagers don't have sex until their later teens. That means that there are a lot of children younger than 14 having sex as well.
Are these children having sex with each other or are adults coercing them into sex? If adults are coercing them into sex, does teaching them abstinence help at all or just make them feel even worse about the situation.

[ChoralScholar]

36. in other news "Study: Ocean contains many gallons of water"

Imagine it, if you can:

Here is the real headline here:

Empty right-wing buzzword fails to achieve intended consequences.

[Zandor]

37. Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex

Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer

Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students - 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don't believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement...



Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155AP_Abstinence_Study.html

[Deja Q]

38. Then what methods are left to deter unwanted activities?

Maybe giving the kids jobs, but as we've seen by the likes of offshoring, that's not going to make any difference either.

[sam sarrha]

39. THEY DONT STOP SEX!!!! where do i get me one of those abstinence classes..??

[Jamastiene]

49. ...

:rofl: :spray:

[aaronbees]

52. lol...

My thought exactly!

[gorbal]

40. But they make great foreplay.

Seriously, nothing works better than having a good relationship with your kids, NOTHING!! If you don't spend enough time with them, there is nothing any amount of abstinence training will fix.

[JohnnyLib2]

41. Forget Golden Fleece awards, this gets the Golden Condom trophy.

[Maat]

42. Bookmarking ...

so I can put an end to the nonsense espoused by some members of our family.

[aquaman]

43. Really,

I would never have guessed that!

:sarcasm:

[Josh]

44. Probably stops *safe* sex though -

so it's a grand pile of stupid twice.

[MadMaddie]

45. Hunh...no one could have see that coming.....

[ninkasi]

46. 50 years ago, I was 14

Back then, abstinence was pretty much the only message that was preached, and that was by our parents. A little later, than a year later, my boyfriend and I were sexually active. It was only due to a stroke of luck, and condoms, that I didn't become pregnant. The main thing I remember from back then, was that my boyfriend and I enjoyed sex, and completely ignored what our parents told us.

The only practical sex education we got was that which we learned from friends, and older siblings. We did not have to deal with some of the more lethal sexual issues of today, such as HIV, and herpes. When my own children were in their teens, although I tried to talk to them about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, and emotional harm, I still stressed safe sex if they did decide to have sex.

All three are now in their 40s, married, and happy. Their were no STDs, no unplanned pregnancies, and no emotionally scarred, frightened kids. None have been divorced. They are all well adjusted, happy, and without regrets, as far as I can tell. Lying to kids, or trying to scare them into a narrow point of view seems to me to be counter-productive, and completely missing the goal.

I would also like to add that I didn't marry my boyfriend. I met another guy, and eloped with him, which is another completely different story. My point is that in the 50's, that golden age that so many conservatives seem to revere, kids were pretty much ignoring the abstinence message, and doing what their feelings dictated, regardless of how often they attended church, or how many messages they got from their elders regarding the sins of sex.

As far as I'm concerned, it's better for kids to get realistic advice, and know about safe sex, than to have the only message "not until you're married". The couples I knew, way back when, who waited til marriage ended up divorced. The trauma of divorce, and the children who suffer from it, seems to me to be a poor bargain for only having sex when married.

My last comment is this. My first husband, the father of my children, never, ever, had sex outside of marriage. I was his third wife, and when he died, he was married to number six. Serial monogamy, I guess, is the best description. It seems to me to be a high price to pay for sex. My current husband and I have been married for over 21 years, and will stay married.

[JohnnyLib2]

53. What an honest and useful post!

Thank you. By the way, my 63 year old brother just pointed out an advantage of me turning 65 (gasp); Medicare coverage.

[Jamastiene]

47. Ha! You reckon?

:rofl: Duh...Who would have thunk it?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

50. my good friend: the best abstinence class was getting married to his wife

funny, I don't think he is joking either.

[mainer]

51. In late 1700's, 40% of first births were conceived out of wedlock

That's according to the journal of a midwife named Martha Ballard (THE MIDWIFE'S TALE) who attended patients in Maine during that era.

That's also an era of so-called "traditional values."

So no, nothing's changed.

[DuaneBidoux]

54. So now there are two groups: those having sex and becoming pregnant and diseased and those who got..

an actual education in sex that at least have some hope of not becoming pregnant or diseased.

[cap]

55. so who's telling these kids what to do on their wedding night?

for the 1 out of 10 who remain virgins.... Who's telling them how their bodies work and that there is nothing to be afraid of, or ashamed of? Who's telling them when they need to see gyn's or their family doctor's about illnesses in certain areas of the body?

We are getting a bunch of kids that will have a lot of weird problems that are easily avoided. Abstinence only is dangerous.

[Psephos]

56. More LBN: Sensitivity training classes don't reduce bigotry

When human nature and political theories of education collide, the winner is quite predictable.

[entanglement]

57. For a minute I though this was from the *makers* of Mathematica...LOL

n/t

[colorado_ufo]

58. Abstinence classes stop sex

the way that diet books make you lose weight.

[fujiyama]

59. How much money has been wasted by this administration?

That 176 million dollars could have been used for so many useful things...

Of course, so could the billions (more likely trillions when added up) wasted on Iraq and other "defense" spending...

This gives tax and spend a whole new meaning....