Teen pregnancy and lack of sex ed

An unexpected finding was that age of exposure to formal sex education was associated with pregnancy avoidance, with never-pregnant teens taking sex education. Opponents of school-based sex ed argue that educating young people about sex and relationships can lead to promiscuity, teenage pregnancy. New research suggests that comprehensive sex education might lead to less teen pregnancy, and there are no indications that it boosts the levels.

The researchers found that after sex education budgets were slashed, teen pregnancy rates fell by www.adultted Reading Time: 5 mins. Lack of sex education in schools has been identified as a major contributory factor to the high rate of teenage pregnancy and unsafe abortion in the www.adultted Reading Time: 3 mins. Opponents of school-based sex ed argue that educating young people about sex and relationships can lead to promiscuity, teenage pregnancy, increased rates of STIs and can even influence sexual and Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins.

Most experts identify three main causes of teen pregnancy and three particularly negative effects. The main causes include lack of education, peer pressure, and sexual abuse. The main negative effects are financial instability, medical complications, and life outcomes. Based on a national analysis of all available state data, our results clearly show that abstinence-only education does not reduce and likely increases teen pregnancy rates. Comprehensive sex and/or STD education that includes abstinence as a desired behavior was correlated with the lowest teen pregnancy rates across states. Researchers from the University of Washington found that adolescents who receive comprehensive sex education are significantly less likely to become pregnant than adolescents who receive abstinence-only-until-marriage or no formal sex education.

The reigning orthodoxy among public health officials is that the more government spends on sex education the fewer teen pregnancies there will be. Now, however, British researchers have found empirical evidence that appears to demonstrate the exact opposite. In findings published in the Journal of Health Economics , Nottingham University Business School Professor David Paton and Liam Wright, a research assistant at the University of Sheffield, found budget cuts to sex education classes may have contributed to lower rates of teenage pregnancy in England. To their surprise, the researchers found that after sex education budgets were slashed, teen pregnancy rates fell by