Comprehensive Sex Education Research Paper

When thinking about being a teenager, everyone can remember how stressful of a time this truly was. Today’s teens now have one more stressing aspect and that is that of abstinence only policies. Many high schools throughout the United States, are opting out of abstinence only education and going to the much more effective comprehensive sex education. Schools that strictly teach abstinence only, have higher rates of teen pregnancy and are at a substantially increased STD risk rate. While there are two very opposing sides to how teenagers will be taught about sex, the underlying theme is that, young adults should be aware that abstinence is the only 100% safe way to not get an STD or become pregnant. However, they also need to be taught the real

These two teaching styles could not be more different, the same goes for the statistics of the STD and teen pregnancy rates. Abstinence only policies across the United States, are leading to greater downfalls than that of schools who teach comprehensive sex education. Kathrin F. Stanger- Hall, wrote an article entitled ‘Abstinence- Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education’. The article is very straight forward in stating that “Comprehensive sex and/or STD education that includes abstinence as a desired behavior was correlated with the lowest teen pregnancy rates across states.” (Stanger-Hall) Comprehensive sex education is thus lowering rates and statistics for the simple fact that teenagers are better informed. This direct quote is not saying to only teach about using protection or only talking about how to deal with an STD. Rather it is stating that schools should address the fact that the only truly safe way to protect oneself, is abstinence. Abstinence, as stated, is the “desired behavior”, meaning this is the goal. However, schools need to be realistic in that teenagers are going to be sexually active regardless of the type of education they receive. The only truly safe way to protect today’s teens, is to ensure they are being taught the most effective

When people think about compressive sex ed, individuals tend to believe those teaching are only teaching condoms and birth control. While in some manor this is accurate, they teach what truly encompasses being sexually active. The knowledge that is taught in comprehensive sex education is the stereotypical education. It is how to be safe if teen’s decide to be sexually active, which means condoms and birth control. The attitudes skills and values of a comprehensive based education are all very similar. This is what falls under bringing abstinence only and comprehensive together. Based off of a study from ‘Aids Patient Care and STDs’, there is no proof that abstinence only works but ample proof that comprehensive sex education is far more effective. The best and most clear way to describe the difference is stated in the before mentioned