US Set to Replicate UK Sex Ed Failure

July 15 , 2009

Washington, DC - NAEA

With an impending vote by the House Appropriations Committee this Friday, policymakers would be well-advised to note the alarming report in the current issue of the British Medical Journal. The article shows the failure of a so-called comprehensive sex education approach. 

Designed to curb teen pregnancy, instead it found that:

• Attendees were more likely to become pregnancy than the comparison group (16% vs. 6%)
• Participants were more likely to be sexually active than the comparison group (58% vs. 33%)

• Participants were less likely to use condoms at last sex than the comparison group

The program implemented in the UK was modeled after the New York Children’s Aid Society (Carrera) program.  Of further concern, this is one of the programs recommended as an effective model within the new Teen Pregnancy Prevention funding program proposed by the White House.  The Teen Pregnancy Prevention program also eliminates promising abstinence programs already serving 2.5 million students across the nation. These abstinence programs have a growing body of research showing significant delay in sexual onset.

"Attempts to replicate the Carrera program in the United States, and most recently in the UK, have been dismal failures endangering the health of youth," said Valerie Huber, executive director of NAEA.  "It is not uncommon for research to find little difference between the participant group and the comparison group. When a program moves students in the wrong direction, however, this reveals a very serious problem."