Family Life

02.02.10 | FL News Team

(Philadelphia, PA)  --  Abstinence-only education for pre-teens is superior to health-promotion classes in delaying teenage sexual activity.  That's the finding of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  Researchers found a 33-percent reduction in self-reported sexual intercourse from teens enrolled in an abstinence-only study group compared to a group of youngsters who weren't exposed to the intervention.  Even two years after the educational experience, one-third of the abstinence-only group reported having sex compared to one-half of the control group.  

The researchers point out while abstinence-only intervention didn't entirely eliminate sexual activity there is an important upside.  They say it did tend to delay activity until a time when an adolescent is usually more prepared to handle the consequences and responsibilities of sexual involvement.  The full report appears in the February issue of the "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine."