Surprisingly, compared with teenagers in the early 1990s, the rates for sexual activity and pregnancy of teens today are marginally declining. While old fashion sex education maybe assisting in these gradual decreases, recent studies are finding that additional strategies need to be implemented with sex education in order to provide a substantial decline in teen pregnancies.Currently in the United States two types of sexual education are actively being used: abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education. While both of these educational programs are designed to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, there lie vast differences in the approaches and curricula of each.
Abstinence-only as a form of sexual education takes on the premise that the only way a person can prevent an unwanted pregnancy is if one were to wait to engage in sex until marriage (AVERT, 2006). Based on the belief that teens that are provided information about sex are thus given permission to engage in sex, abstinence-only education chooses instead to focus on the moral, ethical, and religious implications of engaging in sex before marriage. As a goal abstinence-only tries to reduce the rate of sexual encounters by teens to none (Martin, 2004, p.11). To some, abstinence-only education is thought to work by provoking fear in teens by informing them that pre-marital engagement in sex can only result in negative consequences and disease (Collins, 2006, p. 4). However, others may argue that by keeping teens involved with their community, parents, school environment and countering peer pressures, abstinence-only programs are created to save the youth from making decisions they will regret (Goodson et al., 2006, p. 262). Additionally, abstinence-only advocates also believe that teaching teenage girls to say no to sexual advances and promoting that waiting until marriage can make for a healthier relationship, can be empowering for girls and thus even promote a higher self esteem throughout development (Martin, 2004, p. 7).
Conversely, comprehensive sex education offers more diversity in the information provided to teens. In addition to promoting abstinence as the only sure way to avoid unwanted pregnancy and disease, comprehensive education provides information about, and teaches protection against, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy (AVERT, 2006). For example, comprehensive sex education instructs teenagers about the proper uses of various forms of contraceptives including condoms, diaphragms, and oral contraceptives. Comprehensive education bases its information on the fact that many teens do choose to have sex, and thus as a goal, deems it essential to provide teens with the appropriate information they need in order to reduce the level of unprotected sexual encounters (Collins, 1997, p. 4, Martin, 2004, p. 11). Many argue, however, that providing teens with this sort of information is giving then a license to engage in sexual activity. On the other hand, if one were to look solely at the rates of sexually transmitted disease contraction they would find that over four million teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease annually (Guttmacher, 2004, p. 1). Proponents of comprehensive sex education believe that this is evidence enough to prove that teenagers need this type of knowledge to protect them.
The federal government has left the decision to the state as to which sex education should be taught in schools. A study published by the Guttmacher Institute (2004, p. 1) found that currently “86 percent of public school districts in the United States that have a policy to teach sexual education requires that abstinence be promoted. Of that 86 percent, 35 percent requires abstinence to be taught as the only option…and either prohibits the discussion of contraception altogether or limit discussion to its ineffectiveness. The other 51 percent have a policy to teach abstinence as the preferred option for teens and permit discussion of contraception as an effective means of preventing pregnancy and STDs.”
Despite both the programs educational efforts in middle schools and high schools, there still exists an average of 800,000 teenage girls becoming pregnant each year, and an average of 450,000 of them giving birth (Henshaw, 2004). So where lays the problem in sexual educational curricula? Three factors thought to contribute to this problem involving teenage sexual behavior and high pregnancy rates are: why teenagers are engaging in sex, low contraceptive use, and low motivation to delay pregnancy.
As previously mentioned, there are currently 46.7 percent of teenagers (ages 15-19) in the United States who have admitted to engaging in sexual intercourse (CDC, 2003, p. 1)). Even more astounding, however are the reasons these teens say they are having sex. Studies have shown that teens are engaging in sexual behavior in order “to feel accepted and loved, to become more popular and to keep [their] boyfriend of girlfriend” (Hacker, 2000, p. 283) Other studies have shown that the current rate of contraceptive usage among teenagers the last time they engaged in sexual intercourse, is decreasing (NCPTP, 2004, p. 2). According to researchers, the percent of teenagers reported using some form of contraception during their last sexual encounter decreased from the 1988 rate of 77 percent to the current rate of 63 percent. Some teens themselves have suggested they do not regularly use contraception because they are embarrassed to ask, fear their family would discover they are sexually activity, lacked knowledge about usage, or the partner did not want to use contraceptive devices (Hacker, 2000, p.286). Perhaps the most alarming response from teenagers is another indicator of why teen pregnancy still appears to be an issue: teens had low motivations to delay a pregnancy. Research has shown that teenagers who were inconsistent in their contraceptive usages were usually teenagers who lacked motivation for plans for their future or education/career pursuits (Young, 2004, p. 369). The reasons behind low contraceptive usage and lower motivations to delay pregnancy appear to be the tip of the iceberg when examining the shortcomings of the abstinence-only and comprehensive sexual education programs.
While both abstinence-only and comprehensive sex educational programs are designed in theory to give teens insight on either how to avoid pregnancy or to protect oneself from it, researchers say there are still underlying issues that neither sexual education program is addressing and as a result, the rates of teen pregnancy are only marginally declining. For instance, the studies performed by Hacker et al. (2000, p. 288) of the Boston Public Health Commission, and Young et al. (2004, p. 369) of the School of Human Environmental Science, University of Arkansas, showed that when examining the reasons behind why teenagers chose to engage in sex are not using contraceptives or delaying pregnancy, there appeared to be psychological components to the teenagers’ well-being that sexual education programs are failing to address. Both studies done by Hacker et al. (2000, p. 281) and Young et al. (2004, p. 365) instituted the technique of speaking directly with teens, allowing responses on sexual behavior, motivations, and pregnancy prevention to be all first hand. Among the teens whose responses included to feel accepted and loved, to become more popular and to keep [their] boyfriend of girlfriend, Hacker et al. (2000, p. 283) urged that many of the teens were struggling with issues of self esteem.
The solution according to Hacker et al. (2000, p. 288) is that sexual education needs to include teaching teens refusal, negotiation, and relationship development skills in order to improve teens self esteem and provide teens with a better understanding of their emotions and how to better relate in relationships. Similarly, for the teens that had low expectations for their futures and thus were not as concerned with contraceptive usage or pregnancy, Young et al. (2004, p. 369) also found a lack of self esteem and emotional awareness. Young et al. (2004, p. 371) study suggested a way to counter these problems of low expectations would be to offer programs that facilitated “academic success among [teens] and empowered [them] to strive for higher levels of education and high status careers.”
In addition to the proposed solutions to low self esteem and emotional unawareness, teens in both the Hacker et al. (2000, p. 284) and Young et al. (2004, p. 371) studies came up with solutions for improving sex education as well. When it comes to where teens receive their information, a majority of the teens in the Hacker et al. (2000, p. 284) study said they preferred to here information from their parents, illustrating that teens do in fact want to hear what their parents have to say. However, other teens noted that they do also want educational information available from school health programs and at community health centers as well, showing that teens want more than one source for their information. Teens in the Hacker et al. (2000, p. 284) study additionally suggested that sex education programs and facilities should make it easier for them to obtain contraception, as well as providing more realistic information about relationships, pregnancy and parenting, suggesting that teens themselves still feel it difficult to obtain contraceptive devices and maintain the feeling that they are not getting necessary information. Teens in Young et al. (2004, p. 369) study also suggested that in order to counter the feeling of low future expectations, that a sex education programs as well as the rest of the academic realm, should encourage teenagers to set high goals and establish a way to help teens attain those goals. These suggestions by the teens in the Young et al. (2004, p. 369) study imply that most teens felt they might delay sex more or practice safer sex if they felt their goals were attainable.
In order to drastically reduce the rates of teen pregnancy in the Unites States, a reform is needed in the arena of sexual education programs. The first endeavor to reorganize these programs is the call for one unifying sexual education supported by government funds. The current divide over which sexual education curricula should be taught in public and private schools boils down to Should we, from the view of abstinence-only, provide teens with the information that will encourage them to engage in sex? or should we from the proponents of comprehensive education, provide of teens with the information so that they can protect themselves and others? But as the debate rolls on, so to does the roughly 800,000 teenage girls who get pregnant each year (Henshaw, 2004). In statistics published by the Siecus Public Policy office, it was found that in 2000, 700 million dollars was allocated to the teaching of abstinence-only education. Of the results being reviewed up to 2005, Siecus published that “numerous state evaluations fail to find that Abstinence-only is effective” (Siecus, 2005 p. 2). Furthermore, in a public opinion poll recorded by Cynthia Dailard of the Guttmacher Institute (2001), it was reported that 81% of the parents interviewed said that they preferred their children be instructed on abstinence, as well as pregnancy and STD prevention. With results such as this, it should be evident that teens need to be taught more beyond abstinence-only education. The most beneficial thing to teach teenagers of today to reduce teen pregnancies, is the facts about contraceptives, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases, and related curriculum of comprehensive sex education. However, as Young et al. (2004, p. 371) and Hacker et al. (2000, p. 288) have suggested, the implementation of curricula that addresses the psychological well-being of teens needs to be added as well. With the addition of material designed to improved teen self esteem, assess and acknowledge the emotional realities of relationships, and provide accurate information about pregnancy and parenting, sexual education will be in a position to provide an optimal impact on teenage pregnancy.
Another aspect to improving sexual education to provide decreased rates in teen pregnancy would be to get the parents more involved. Several studies, including Hacker et al.(2000, p. 286), have brought light on the fact that not only do teenagers listen to their parents, but they in fact want to talk with them about sex (NCPTP, 2006, p. 7). Thus in order to facilitate the needed parent involvement, sexual education programs provided in schools today should offer information sessions to parents in which they can update their own information, as well as learn tactics to talking to their teenager about sex. By allowing parents to attend the same structure of sex education class as their teen, teenagers will not only receive the information they need, but will also have what they learned from school enforced by their parents.
Lastly, one of the most important aspect of supplementing sex education programs is to allow sufficient time and an accepting environment to listen to teens and their issues. For instance, studies have reported that teenagers feel that they would be able to prevent unplanned teen pregnancy if they had easier access to birth control and contraceptives, and access to information regarding these things as well (Hacker et al., 2000, p. 285). Thus, in response to the youth, more programs beyond Planned Parenthood need to be making it easier for teens to obtain contraceptives or birth control with no questions asked, and in away that makes the teens more comfortable in obtaining them. Additionally, it is important for sex education courses to periodically ask teenagers to evaluate their effectiveness. This communication can prove to be vital as to what teenagers feel they are lacking in terms of information or skills, but it is essential that these suggestions and feedback implemented as well.
If the United States wants to drastically change the rate at which teenagers are becoming pregnant, then the implementation of a unifying governmentally and publicly approved sexual education program needs to be addressed. Not only will such a program benefit from teaching a more comprehensive knowledge of sex, but it will also need to include curricula designed to improve self esteem, relationship assessment, and accurate information about pregnancy and parenthood as well. Additionally, such a program will also need the support and involvement of parents and educational faculty to portray information to teenagers, but will also require the acknowledgment of teen feedback. Only when all of these things can be implemented under one curriculum will we see teen pregnancy rates sharply decline.
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