Sex Education: Does it Work?

It is one of those memorable moments in our middle school lives. Almost like cattle, we get ushered out of class by an administrator as if on some top secret mission. Nobody talks in the line that slowly crawls down the hall; eyes are wide and confused. Teenage boys have their hands shoved down into their pockets and shuffle along with their heads hung low. The girls grip onto their purses tightly smacking their gum nervously. Everyone has heard about it, and now the time has come. It is time for the school to educate the youth about sex. Of course, this was the scenes eons ago when I was in middle school and we still laughed when we heard the word "penis." Nowadays, I am sure the youth would be at a much better place in educating the administration about teenage sexual matters.

So, does sex education still work? According to a new study, the resounding answer is yes. In fact, according to this study, teenagers are more likely to wait a little longer before having their first sexual experience if they have had school-taught sex education. The numbers were a little higher in males, with a powerful 71%, compared to the female 59% in terms of being less likely to have sexual intercourse before the age of fifteen. In addition, young adult men who participated in sex education through school were over two and a half times more likely to use some form of protection the first time they had sex. Unfortunately, participating in sex education for young adult females did not increase or decrease the chances of them using protection for their first sexual encounter.

According to lead researcher Tricia Mueller, "Sex education seems to be working. It seems to be especially effective for populations that are usually at high risk." In fact, for African-American females, participating in a sex education course at school made it 91% less likely that they would participate in a sexual activity before the age of 15. Many sex education studies that determined it to be ineffective relied heavily on data garnered from various studies that took place between the 1970s and 1990s. Mueller's study, on the other hand, is much more recent (2002) and boasted over 2,000 participants between the ages of 15 and 19. Different variables, including the household income where those teenagers resided, were also taken into consideration.

The interim director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, Claire Brindis, states that incorporating sex education into a school's curriculum is vital since many teenagers fall prey to strange sexual myths. "Some still believe you can't get pregnant if you're standing up or doing it for the first time or if your boyfriend is drinking a lot of Mountain Dew." She further states that much of the current sex education curriculum focuses on the physical aspect of sex, including how to buy condoms and how to put on a condom. While that is important, she feels it is imperative that sex education also focus on what to do in various settings including when a teenager is feeling pressured into having sex.