Sex ed in schools may help delay teen sex

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sex education in school mayencourage teenagers to put off having sexual intercourse, theresults of a U.S. government study suggests.
The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of AdolescentHealth, did not determine if the type of program matters --that is, abstinence-only versus more-comprehensive programs.
However, the findings do suggest that having some form ofsex education helps delay teen sex, according to theresearchers, from the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
In a national survey of more than 2,000 adolescents between15 and 19 years old, the researchers found that teens who hadsex ed in school were more likely to put off sex until at leastage 15. Furthermore, boys who received sex ed were less likelyto have started having sex at all.
"Sex education seems to be working," lead researcher Dr.Trisha E. Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC, said in astatement.
In particular, she noted, some of the greatest benefitswere seen in the teens who may need them the most -- urban,African-American girls. In this group of girls, those who'dreceived sex education were 91 percent less likely to have hadsex before the age of 15.
Overall, male study participants who'd received sexeducation were 71 percent less likely to have had sex beforeage 15 than those who'd had no formal sex ed. Among femaleparticipants, sex ed reduced those odds by 59 percent.
Male respondents who'd had sex education were also morelikely to say they would used birth control the first time theyhad sex. No similar effect was seen among girls.
There were certain groups of teens who did not seem tobenefit from sex education. Girls from rural areas were morelikely to have sex, and white and Hispanic girls who eventuallydropped out of high school were less likely to delay sex. Thereasons are unclear, according to Mueller's team, and thefindings may be due to chance because the numbers of studyparticipants in these groups were small.
Overall, the researchers conclude that "sex educationprovides youth with the knowledge and skills to make healthyand informed decisions about sex, and this study indicates thatsex education is making a difference in the sexual behaviors ofAmerican youth."
SOURCE: Journal of Adolescent Health, January 2008.