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Facts about Abstinence Education
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Abstinence/wm461.cfm
Fact: Sexual activity at an early age has multiple harmful consequences.
The earlier a teenage girl begins sexual activity the more likely she is to suffer from increased rates of infection with sexually transmitted diseases, increased rates of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and birth, increased rates of single parenthood, decreased marital stability, increased maternal and child poverty, increased abortion, increased depression, and decreased adult happiness.[1]
Fact: Most sexually active teens say they wish they had waited until they were older before having sex.
Nearly two thirds of sexually active teens state that they regret their initial sexual activity and wish they had waited until they were older before becoming sexually active.[2]
Fact: Sexually active teens are more likely to be depressed and to attempt suicide.
Sexually active teens are less likely to be happy, more likely to be depressed, and more likely to attempt suicide. Teenage girls who are sexually active are three times more likely to be depressed and three times more likely to attempt suicide than girls who are not active. Teenage boys who are sexually active are more than twice as likely to be depressed and are almost ten times more likely to attempt suicide than boys who are not active.[3]
Fact: Abstinence education programs are effective in reducing teen sexual activity.
There are currently ten evaluations showing that abstinence education is effective in reducing teen sexual activity. Half of these evaluations have been published in peer-reviewed journals. For example, “Not Me, Not Now” is a community-wide abstinence program in Monroe County, New York. The program broadcasts pro-abstinence messages to teens through the mass media. The program has been successful in changing teen attitudes. The sexual activity rate of 15-year-olds across the county (as reported on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey) dropped 46.6 percent to 31.6 percent. The pregnancy rate for girls aged 15 through 17 in the county fell by a statistically significant amount from 63.4 pregnancies per 1000 girls to 49.5 pregnancies per 1000.. The teen pregnancy rate fell more rapidly in Monroe County than in comparison counties and in upstate New York in general, and the difference in the rate of decrease was statistically significant. [4]
Fact: Abstinence programs dramatically reduce out-of-wedlock childbearing.
For more than a decade, abstinence organizations such as “True Love Waits” have encouraged young people to abstain from sexual activity. As part of these programs, young people are encouraged to make a verbal or written pledge to abstain from sex until marriage. Young women who take a virginity pledge are about 40 percent less likely to have a child out-of-wedlock when compared to similar young women who do not make pledges, according to recently released data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. These dramatic findings are valid even when background factors such as socio-economic status, race, religiosity, and other relevant variables are held constant.[5]
Fact: Government spends $12 to promote contraceptives for every $1 spent on abstinence. In 2002, the federal and state governments spent an estimated $1.73 billion on a wide variety of contraception-promotion and pregnancy-prevention programs. More than a third of that money ($653 million) was spent specifically to fund contraceptive programs for teens. In contrast, programs teaching teens to abstain from sexual activity received only an estimated $144.1 million in the same year. Overall, government spent $12.00 to promote contraception for every one dollar spent to encourage abstinence. If funding for teens alone is examined, government still spent $4.50 on promoting teen contraceptive use for every one dollar spent on teen abstinence.[6]
Fact: Government spending priorities do not match parental priorities.
Some 85 percent of parents believe that teaching about abstinence should be emphasized as much as, or more than, teaching about contraception. Only 8 percent believe that promoting contraception is more important than abstinence.[7]
Fact: “Comprehensive sex education” or “abstinence plus” programs are merely safe sex programs wrapped in a deceptive label.
In recent years, a new approach, termed “abstinence plus” or “comprehensive sexuality education,” has played a prominent role in the public debate over sex education. According to proponents, abstinence plus or comprehensive sex ed programs place a strong emphasis on abstinence but also contain information about contraception. This approach is presented as the middle ground between “safe sex” and abstinence.
In reality, comprehensive sex ed programs are nothing more than standard “safe sex” programs wrapped in a new label. These curricula have little meaningful abstinence content. True abstinence curricula devote, on average, 71 percent of their page content to abstinence. In contrast, comprehensive sex ed curricula, on average, allocate only 4.7 percent of their content to abstinence; the overwhelming focus is on encouraging teens to use contraception.
The brief abstinence message in comprehensive sex ed curricula is weak and equivocal: comprehensive sex ed does not present abstinence as a goal or standard that teens should pursue, but merely as a minor option teens may consider. Comprehensive sex curricula never urge teens to abstain until they finish high school. Even sentences suggesting that young people should wait “until they are older” before engaging in sex are extremely rare. The principal message that pervades comprehensive sex ed curricula, through repeated example, is that it is okay for teens to have sex as long as they use contraception.[8]
Fact: Parents overwhelmingly support the values and messages of true abstinence education.
Polls show that parents overwhelmingly support the main themes and messages of abstinence education:
• 79 percent of parents want teens to be taught that they should not engage in sexual activity until they are married or at least in an adult relationship leading to marriage.
• 91 percent of parents want teens to be taught that “the best choice is for sexual intercourse to be linked to love, intimacy, and commitment. These qualities are most likely to occur in a faithful marriage.”
• 68 percent of parents want sex education programs to teach that “individuals who are not sexually active until they are married have the best chances of marital stability and happiness.”
• 91 percent of parents want schools to teach that “adolescents should be expected to abstain from sexual activity during high school years.”
These themes are central to abstinence education curricula. By contrast, these messages either do not appear in or are directly contradicted by comprehensive sex ed/abstinence plus curricula.[9]
Fact: Parents overwhelmingly oppose the values and messages of comprehensive sex ed curricula.
Comprehensive sex ed programs teach permissive values that are opposed by nearly all parents:
• Comprehensive sex ed curricula focus almost exclusively on contraception and include little or no material on abstinence. However, only 2 percent of parents believe abstinence is not important; only 7 percent believe teaching about contraception should have more emphasis than teaching about abstinence.
• Over 90 percent of parents want sex education programs to teach teens to abstain at least until they have finished high school. Comprehensive sex ed programs do not contain this message, and much of their material implicitly undermines it.
• In page after page of text, and through example upon example, comprehensive sex ed curricula are pervaded by the message that it is okay for teens to have sex as long as they use contraception. As long as “protection” is used, it is difficult to find any example in these programs where voluntary teen is criticized or discouraged. Only 7 percent of parents agree with this permissive message.[10]
Fact: Comprehensive sex ed programs contain sexually explicit material that is offensive to nearly all parents.
Most comprehensive sex-ed curricula contain sexually explicit and offensive materials. For example, curricula have students practice unrolling condoms on bananas, cucumbers, or model phalluses. Curricula also contain discussions of anal sex and homosexual role-playing and encourage teens to practice mutual masturbation and watch erotic movies. Much material in “abstinence plus” curricula would be alarming to parents.[11] For example, the curriculum Be Proud! Be Responsible! instructs teachers to:
Invite [students] to brainstorm ways to increase spontaneity and the likelihood that they’ll use condoms…. Examples: …Store condoms under mattress; Eroticize condom use with partner…Use condoms as a method of foreplay.… Think up a sexual fantasy using condoms….Act sexy/sensual when putting condoms on…. Hide them on your body and ask your partner to find it. Wrap them as a present and give to your partner before a romantic dinner. Tease each other manually while putting on the condom.[12]
Similarly, the curriculum Focus on Kids prompts teachers to:
State that there are other ways to be close to a person and show you care without having sexual intercourse. Ask youth to brainstorm ways to be close. The list may include holding hands, body massage, bathing together, masturbation, sensuous feeding, fantasizing, watching erotic movies, reading erotic books and magazines….[13]
Fact: Claims that parents support comprehensive sex ed or “abstinence plus” programs are false.
Organizations such as Advocates for Youth falsely claim that parents support comprehensive sex. These claims are based on the erroneous assertion that comprehensive sex ed programs contain the heavy emphasis on abstinence preferred by nearly all parents. In reality, these programs have very little abstinence content. In addition, the aggressive promotion of teen contraceptive use, permissive sexual values, and explicit sexual material contained in comprehensive sex ed programs are unacceptable to nearly all parents.
Fact: Most parents want their children to be taught a strong abstinence message as well as basic biological and health facts about contraception, but this does not mean that parents oppose authentic abstinence education.
In general, abstinence curricula focus on abstinence and do not teach about contraception. However, in most schools where abstinence is taught, students will receive basic information about contraception in a separate class such as biology or health. Most parents support this approach; they strongly support abstinence education and do not believe abstinence and contraception should be mixed together in the same class.[14]
Moreover, the fact that parents want students taught the basic facts about contraception does not mean they support the aggressive promotion of teen contraceptive use contained in “comprehensive sex ed” programs. Such programs encourage contraceptive use, teach teens how to convince sex partners to use contraception, teach youth how to obtain contraception, and have students practice condom use; the overwhelming majority of parents reject this approach.[15]
Fast Facts on Marriage
For more information on building strong marriages visit www.marry-well.org
www.americanvalues.com
• Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers have good relationships with their children.
• Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty for both children and mothers
• Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than singles or cohabiting couples
• Married men earn more money than do single men with similar education and job histories
• Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children’s risk of school failure.
• Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high status jobs.
• Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health, on average, than do children in other family forms.
• Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens
• Married people, especially married men, have longer life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles
• Children whose parents divorce have higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness.
• Divorce appears to significantly increase the risk of suicide in both parents and adolescents
• Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior.
• A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at greater risk of child abuse
Fast Facts on Fatherhood
Fatherhood.org
Father Factor in Incarceration
• Even after controlling for income, youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.
Father Factor in Crime
• A study of 109 juvenile offenders indicated that family structure significantly predicts delinquency.
• A study of 13,986 women in prison showed that more than half grew up without their father. Forty-two percent grew up in a single-mother household and sixteen percent lived with neither parent. (Fathers and Daughters)
• Of the 228 students studied, those from single-parent families reported higher rates of drinking and smoking as well as higher scores on delinquency and aggression tests when compared to boys from two-parent households.
• In a study of INTERPOL crime statistics of 39 countries, it was found that single parenthood ratios were strongly correlated with violent crimes. This was not true 18 years ago.
Father Factor in Teen Pregnancy
• Being raised by a single mother raises the risk of teen pregnancy, marrying with less than a high school degree, and forming a marriage where both partners have less than a high school degree.
• Separation or frequent changes increase a woman’s risk of early menarche, sexual activity and pregnancy. Women whose parents separated between birth and six years old experienced twice the risk of early menstruation, more than four times the risk of early sexual intercourse, and two and a half times higher risk of early pregnancy when compared to women in intact families. The longer a woman lived with both parents, the lower her risk of early reproductive development. Women who experienced three or more changes in her family environment exhibited similar risks but were five times more likely to have an early pregnancy.
• Researchers using a pool from both the U.S. and New Zealand found strong evidence that father absence has an effect on early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy. Teens without fathers were twice as likely to be involved in early sexual activity and seven times more likely to get pregnant as an adolescent.
Father Factor in Child Abuse
• Compared to living with both parents, living in a single-parent home doubles the risk that a child will suffer physical, emotional, or educational neglect.
• An analysis of child abuse cases in a nationally representative sample of 42 counties found that children from single-parent families are more likely to be victims of physical and sexual abuse than children who live with both biological parents. Compared to their peers living with both parents, children in single parent homes had:
- a 77% greater risk of being physically abused
- an 87% greater risk of being harmed by physical neglect
- a 165% greater risk of experiencing notable physical neglect
- a 74% greater risk of suffering from emotional neglect
- an 80% greater risk of suffering serious injury as a result of abuse
- overall, a 120% greater risk of being endangered by some type of child abuse.
Father Factor in Drug and Alcohol Abuse
• Researchers at Columbia University found that children living in two-parent household with a poor relationship with their father are 68% more likely to smoke, drink, or use drugs compared to all teens in two-parent households. Teens in single mother households are at a 30% higher risk than those in two-parent households.
Father Factor in Education
• Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school.
• Father involvement in schools is associated with the higher likelihood of a student getting mostly A's. This was true for fathers in biological parent families, for stepfathers, and for fathers heading single-parent families.
• Students living in father-absent homes are twice as likely to repeat a grade in school; 10 percent of children living with both parents have ever repeated a grade, compared to 20 percent of children in stepfather families and 18 percent in mother-only families.
• Students in single-parent families or stepfamilies are significantly less likely than students living in intact families to have parents involved in their schools. About half of students living in single-parent families or stepfamilies have parents who are highly involved, while 62 percent of students living with both their parents have parents who are highly involved in their schools.
• A study of 1330 children from the PSID showed that fathers who are involved on a personal level with their child schooling increases the likelihood of their child's achievement. When fathers assume a positive role in their child's education, students feel a positive impact.
• Half of all children with highly involved fathers in two-parent families reported getting mostly A's through 12th grade, compared to 35.2% of children of nonresident father families.
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