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Feb. 3rd, 2010 12:10 pmAbstinance-only sex education might work! according to headlines reporting on one study.
Of course, that ignores the fact that this study only covers 662 African-American students drawn from four middle schools in the same city. Also, how did they determine how many engaged in sex? Self reporting maybe? Given our cultural attitudes towards sex, I can't think of any way to gather that data without it being skewed in one or more ways. This last point is backed up by their results. An average of 43.5% had sex by the time they were 13-15? (The study's subjects were 6th and 7th graders, and it check on their activity after two years)
I see three possibilities: The first is that maybe things changed significantly between 1988-1992 (when I was in middle school) and 2001-2004. The second is that maybe my school was simply too far north and east to be representative, after all I don't think that my hometown could scrape together 662 African-American 6th and 7th graders for any purpose. Or third, and my personal favorite, teenagers lied when asked about sex. From my personal observations even up through the end of highschool, the number of kids who claimed to have sexual relations in an attempt to seem more mature/less of a loser/cooler was probably equal to or greater than the number who actually did. And that's just talking to other kids, leaving out any "talking to an adult" or "messing with the results because it's fun" factors.
This isn't to say that there weren't quite a few people who could have been reasonable presumed to not be lying about their sexual exploits even by the end of middle school, but nowhere near even the 33% the study had as its best group. My personal feelings are that all four groups from the study had about the same activity rates, and that those in the "abstinence-only" group felt less pressure to exaggerate.
Of course, that ignores the fact that this study only covers 662 African-American students drawn from four middle schools in the same city. Also, how did they determine how many engaged in sex? Self reporting maybe? Given our cultural attitudes towards sex, I can't think of any way to gather that data without it being skewed in one or more ways. This last point is backed up by their results. An average of 43.5% had sex by the time they were 13-15? (The study's subjects were 6th and 7th graders, and it check on their activity after two years)
I see three possibilities: The first is that maybe things changed significantly between 1988-1992 (when I was in middle school) and 2001-2004. The second is that maybe my school was simply too far north and east to be representative, after all I don't think that my hometown could scrape together 662 African-American 6th and 7th graders for any purpose. Or third, and my personal favorite, teenagers lied when asked about sex. From my personal observations even up through the end of highschool, the number of kids who claimed to have sexual relations in an attempt to seem more mature/less of a loser/cooler was probably equal to or greater than the number who actually did. And that's just talking to other kids, leaving out any "talking to an adult" or "messing with the results because it's fun" factors.
This isn't to say that there weren't quite a few people who could have been reasonable presumed to not be lying about their sexual exploits even by the end of middle school, but nowhere near even the 33% the study had as its best group. My personal feelings are that all four groups from the study had about the same activity rates, and that those in the "abstinence-only" group felt less pressure to exaggerate.
