Study pans abstinence programs

Study pans abstinence programs
By Kevin Freking
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press
Published April 14, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, says a study ordered by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of four abstinence classes studied reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not. They first had sex at about the same age as other students, too -- 14.9 years, says Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education.

The Mathematica study involved 2,057 youths from Miami and Milwaukee and rural Virginia and Mississippi.

Students averaged 11 to 12 years old at the start of the study in 1999 and took part for one to three years. Mathematica then did a follow-up survey in late 2005 and early 2006 and found that about half of the abstinence students and about half from the control group reported that they remained abstinent.

"First, there is no evidence that the programs increased the rate of sexual abstinence," said Chris Trenholm, a senior researcher at Mathematica who oversaw the study. "However, the second part of the story that I think is equally important is that we find no evidence that the programs increased the rate of unprotected sex."

A trade association for abstinence educators emphasized that the findings represent less than 1 percent of the abstinence-education projects funded by federal Title V block grants.

"This study began when [the programs] were still in their infancy," said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Associa