slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2007/04/no_effect.html
Mathematica Policy Research summarizes their findings: Findings indicate that youth in the program group were no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex and, among those who reported having had sex, they had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same mean age. According to this study, kids who went through the program were no more or less likely to do anything. Put another way, it would be impossible to tell, based on behavior, whether a student had been through this program or not. The good news, such as it is, is that it doesn't seem to have had any of the feared negative effects, either: Contrary to concerns raised by some critics of the Title V, Section 510 abstinence funding, however, program group youth were no more likely to have engaged in unprotected sex than control group youth.
These kids didn't learn about safe sex in schools, but fortunately they learned about it somewhere -- from parents, peers, MTV or myspace. Considering the dismal ineffectiveness of the Title V, Section 510 programs, I think it might be worthwhile trying to figure out where it was that these kids learned what they weren't being taught in school. If you're looking for effective programs to emulate, that might be a good place to start. Look at those graphs above and imagine you're an executive with Coke or Pepsi or some other peddler of fizzy sugar water. Imagine that over the past 10 years you'd spent roughly $1 billion on an advertising campaign only to receive a report like this one, showing your ads have had precisely no effect on their intended audience. You would, of course, stop wasting your time and money on this expensive and useless project and find some other strategy.
critics of abstinence programs think this report is the last nail in the coffin of this approach: EURoeThis report should serve as the final verdict on the failure of the abstinence-only industry in this country,EUR said William Smith, vice president for public policy of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US ... EUR Well, yes, it should serve as the final verdict, but it won't. Abstinence proponents aren't operating on the same rational basis as our hypothetical soda company. And, unlike a corporation investing in advertising, they're not spending their own money, so they're not terribly concerned if it's wasted. The folks at Mathematica Policy Research are in the unenviable position of having been commissioned to conduct and report on scientific research for an audience that does not believe in scientific research.
No effect: Comments Fred, the actual surveys to determine the program's effectiveness would be to see how much more strongly voters supported Republicans since the program's implementation. That's what these abstinence-only programs are for, after all. If it turns out that implementing abstinence-only programs in schools leads to greater support of Republicans in those school districts, then funding will continue.
link) showing that people's strong belief of the hot hand in basketball (if someone's made a few shots in a row they're "hot" and more likely to hit the next one) is wrong. They analyzed data from real NBA games, they got people to throw free throws for them and analyzed THAT data... Over time it's held up as a very well supported finding. Find a liberal one, a conservative one, a libertarian one... find one trained in statistics, find one with three PhD's, people have this incredible stubborn resistance to it, because they KNOW that if you make a few shots, then you get more confident, and they KNOW that people have good days and bad days, and they KNOW... Well they don't know, but they have these strong internal theories that these things must be true, and so they oppose contradictory evidence absolutely and fervently. Just like the abstinance industry is going to oppose the Mathmatica report Fred describes above.
Apr 14, 2007 at 06:24 PM Obviously I've got to go read the actual report, because based on what I've read about it so far, the conclusion I came to was that abstinence-only was no more AND no less effective than either 'conventional sex-ed' or no formal sex-ed at all.
Apr 14, 2007 at 06:34 PM I've actually heard supporters of abstinence-only sex ed argue that the results don't matter. These folks say that even if the statistics show no effect or even an overall negative effect, we should keep teaching abstinence-only because it's more "respectful" to the students (How lying to someone is "respectful" is beyond me) and because comprehensive sex ed will cause some other social ill, usually a high abortion rate or school violence. It's the sort of mentality that causes someone to read a story about a kid shooting a classmate somewhere in the Midwest and decide that abortion/same-sex marriage/comprehensive sex ed/teaching evolution/whatever is to blame.
Apr 14, 2007 at 06:39 PM It's the sort of mentality that causes someone to read a story about a kid shooting a classmate somewhere in the Midwest and decide that abortion/same-sex marriage/comprehensive sex ed/teaching evolution/whatever is to blame.
Apr 14, 2007 at 06:43 PM Actually violent video games and TV *do* increase aggression. It's actually a larger effect size than that of cigarettes in causing cancer if I recall right.
Apr 14, 2007 at 07:09 PM All I know is that after my son plays Lego Star Wars for an hour he spends the next three days attacking things with a lightsaber. I also know that right now I'd rather be playing pacman than doing my homework.
Apr 14, 2007 at 07:16 PM Read the Hilchos Xmas thing instead. One of my favorite jokes, which illustrates the difference among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism, has to do with a "Blessing for a Christmas Tree". My wife has heard me tell others this joke many times, so I made her an art-piece with the Blessing in Hebrew and English. I can't remember the Hebrew but the English was Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord Our God, Who has commanded us to decorate the Tree of Winter.
Apr 14, 2007 at 07:26 PM Our daughter was forced to go through this "abstinence only" program. We wanted to "opt her out" of the class, but she successfully pled that such a course would carry a dreadful social stigma. Instead, we had her bring home the paperwork each night, so we could show her the misleading anecdotes, statistical errors, out-of-context information, and outright lies they contain. Of course (afaik) she has yet to become sexually active, but that's mainly because she thinks that boys are stupid, smelly, and totally ignorant of the Important Things In Life (astrophysics, swords, and shojo manga) I've often thought that Dr Elders was absolutely right, and the single most effective way to reduce teen pregnancy and STDs would be to tutor kids in good masturbatory techniques. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the right person to be teaching this to my daughter.
Apr 14, 2007 at 11:18 PM This culture is seriously twisted on the whole subject of teenagers and sex. Part of it, I think, is that we classify teenagers as children, and Americans were seriously hit with the whole "childhood=purity and innocence" thing that came in with the Victorians. Not too surprising, when you think about it---the whole "Victorian" thing was mainly a middle-class deal in the UK, and the US, then and now, is profoundly middle-class. Teen pregnancy is Not A Good Thing, I'll admit, but there are steps that could be taken as a matter of routine. The reason I chose Norplant is that it's "fire-and-forget," and doesn't rely on anybody remembering anything.
i'd much rather give teenage girls human rights than mandatory birth control. besides which, why not require all teenage guys to have reversible vasectomies done, or no high school? personally, i'd especially be interested in much more statistical analysis. are we seeing way more teen pregnancies in Mississippi than in New York, or the Bronx more than Manhattan? what about other factors -- race, class, parents' economic status, access to health care, religion, type of housing, school transcripts, attendance rates? did the kid who fathered a child at 16 flunk health cla...
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