Boarding Schools for Girls

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed country. But a recently completed two-year study indicates that abstinence-only programs may help reverse that trend.

A Feb. 10 MercuryNews.com article by correspondent Tom McMahon provided the following information about the study, which was led by John B. Jemmott III, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania:

• Students were assigned to attend one of five classes.
  
• With 662 urban students between the ages of 11 and 13 participating, researchers found that only 33.5 percent of the students who went through classes that focused on abstinence started having sex in the next two years.
  
• In contrast, 48.5 percent of students who attended other classes, including details on contraception, became sexually active.

"One of the things that's exciting about this study is that it says we have a new tool to add to our repertoire," Monica Rodriguez, vice president for education and training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, said in Rob Stein's Feb. 2 Washington Post article.

Labels: pregnancy, sex-education

Posted By: Aspen/CRC