Educators & Leaders

• Keeping young people from engaging in sexual activity, beyond obviously protecting them from deadly diseases, will help keep them from other dangerous behaviors. A recent study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that "early first sexual intercourse has been associated with risky behaviors such as using drugs, not using contraception at first intercourse, having more sex with partners, and having more frequent intercourse."
• Abstinent teens have healthier attitudes about sex than their sexually active peers. Family Planning Perspectives reports that "compared with peers who are not sexually active, seventh-grade and eighth grade males who are sexually active tend to be less knowledgeable about HIV, less fearful of contracting HIV, less tolerant of people who have AIDS and more likely to engage in risky behaviors."
• In an inner-city sex ed program in Atlanta, Ga., conducted jointly by Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, teenage girls were asked what they wanted most in a sex ed program. Eighty-four percent of the teenage girls indicated they wanted information on "how to say ‘no’ without hurting the other person’s feelings."
• Family Planning Perspectives recently reported that "instruction in some components of sex education also affects age at first intercourse. Among non-blacks, instruction in resistance skills (how to say no to sex) is associated with a decreased risk of early first intercourse. Among blacks, instruction in sexual biology is associated with an elevated risk of early first intercourse."
• Participants involved in the abstinence based Sex Respect program in 26 public schools had a five percent pregnancy rate after two years of being enrolled in the program as opposed to a nine percent rate in the student control group not enrolled in the program. A significant majority (71%) believe "it is important for me not to have sex before I get married."
• When Sex Respect was offered in a St. Louis district middle school, pregnancies fell from 40 a year to 10.
• A 1991 study, conducted by the Institute for Research and Evaluation, published in Adolescence explains, "Sex education programs that promote abstinence can be effective in producing a positive attitude change towards abstinence."
• Teens are more likely to engage in sexual activity if they perceive that peers and adults approve of the behavior. For example:
  1. The Journal of Marriage and Family recently reported on factors connected with early adolescent sexual activity. The authors of the study explain that there is "some evidence that suggests that teens are more likely to be sexually active if they perceive that many of their peers are also sexually active."
  2. In addition, the same study found that "permissive parental values regarding adolescent sexual behavior emerged as a strong risk factor for both males and females. Not surprisingly, adolescents who perceived their parents as accepting of premarital adolescent sexual activity were more likely to be sexually experienced."

   

1. Value System: their sense of what is important and unimportant, good and bad, right and wrong.
2. Social System: family, peer groups, dating partners
3. Related Risk Behaviors and Activities: drug and alcohol use; early, frequent and steady dating; skipping school
4. Personality System: personal efficacy, risk-taking propensity, rebelliousness, future orientation, need for acceptance, personal vulnerability.
5. Information: knowledge regarding sexuality, reproduction, contraception.

1. In Utah, an average of 4.6 percent of junior and senior high school students lose their virginity each year. When the student’s value system is low, the rate is 12.4% per year. A strong value system makes a threefold difference.
2. When students’ value systems are low, and they have a sexually active peer group, and they drink and date steadily, 48% will lose their virginity in one year. This is a thousand fold increase over the state average. When the safe sex message is added, it makes no difference in behavior.

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