Abstinence-only sexual education vs. comprehensive sexual education, with emphasis on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescents

Paper presented to the 3rd Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 27, 2007.Research completed at the Department of Physician Assistant, College of Health ProfessionsIn 2003, the Youth Behavior Risk Survey reported that 46.7% of high school students had been sexually active.[1] In 2000, 9.1 million of the 18.9 million new cases of STDs came from young people age 15-24.[2] Although the teen pregnancy rates had modestly declined in 2004 for girls 15-19, it slightly increased for girls 10-14.[3] Due to these statistics, there is currently an ongoing debate concerning teenage sexual education in the United States and how to make a greater impact on the attitudes, knowledge, and behavior of adolescents. Purpose: To determine whether Abstinence-Only or Comprehensive sexual education has more of an impact on the attitudes, knowledge and sexual behaviors of adolescents. Methods: An evidence based literature review was completed using published studies involving Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive sexual education. These studies were then evaluated to determine which method has the greatest impact. Results: Comprehensive is given a B recommendation and Abstinence-Only is given a C recommendation. More head to head and randomized controlled trials still need to be completed