Sex education 'not working'
Sex education 'not working'
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Friday, 19, May 2006 08:24
The effectiveness of sex education classes for teenagers designed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unplanned pregnancies has been cast into doubt by a new study, published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
An investigation involving 40 public high schools and 11,000 students aged between 13 and 19 in Mexico found that talks and classes on contraception did little to alter teenagers' sexual behaviour.
Students at 15 of the schools involved in the study attended courses about the prevention of HIV and STDs by contraception and abstinence, while 15 schools received talks about using emergency contraception as well as the aforementioned classes.
The remaining ten high schools received only the basic sex education classes attached to the curriculum.
By measuring students' sexual behaviour at the beginning of the trial, four months into the study and then at its conclusion after 16 months, researchers from the division of reproductive health at the Mexican national institute of public health found that the classes had minimal effect on behaviour and attitudes.
None of the three sex education strategies affected the teenagers' sexual behaviour significantly, apart from an increased awareness in HIV and rise in the use of emergency contraception.
"Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that current HIV prevention efforts based in school do not alter sexual risk behaviour, and suggests that current interventions educate effectively but may not change sexual risk behaviour," said the study's authors.
They concluded that "new strategies are urgently needed to combat HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy among adolescents".
The UK has one of the world's highest teenage pregnancy rates, with 415 out of every 10,000 teenagers becoming pregnant.