Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S
Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0024658
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发表时间：
2011-10-14
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Hall, David W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.;Hall, David W.
美国的少女怀孕率和性传播疾病的发病率在发达国家中都位居第一。为了降低这一比例，十多年来，美国政府一直在资助仅限于禁欲的性教育项目。然而，对于这项投资是否成功，以及这些项目是否应该继续下去，公众仍然存在争议。使用美国所有州(N=48)的性教育法律或政策信息的最新全国数据(2005)，我们表明，对禁欲教育的日益重视与青少年怀孕率和出生率呈正相关。在考虑到每个州的社会经济地位、青少年教育程度、青少年人口的种族构成以及计划生育服务的医疗补助豁免后，这一趋势仍然显著。这些数据清楚地表明，单纯禁欲教育作为一项州政策在预防青少年怀孕方面无效，实际上可能是导致美国青少年怀孕率高的原因之一。根据美国国立卫生研究院倡导的新的循证青少年怀孕预防倡议和预防采用过程模式，我们建议将综合性和性传播疾病教育整合到初中和高中科学课堂的生物课程中，并设立平行的社会学课程，以解决避险行为和规划未来的问题。
The United States ranks first among developed nations in rates of both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In an effort to reduce these rates, the U.S. government has funded abstinence-only sex education programs for more than a decade. However, a public controversy remains over whether this investment has been successful and whether these programs should be continued. Using the most recent national data (2005) from all U. S. states with information on sex education laws or policies (N = 48), we show that increasing emphasis on abstinence education is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates. This trend remains significant after accounting for socioeconomic status, teen educational attainment, ethnic composition of the teen population, and availability of Medicaid waivers for family planning services in each state. These data show clearly that abstinence-only education as a state policy is ineffective in preventing teenage pregnancy and may actually be contributing to the high teenage pregnancy rates in the U. S. In alignment with the new evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Precaution Adoption Process Model advocated by the National Institutes of Health, we propose the integration of comprehensive sex and STD education into the biology curriculum in middle and high school science classes and a parallel social studies curriculum that addresses risk-aversion behaviors and planning for the future.