Onset of Sexual Activity in Tweens Delayed by Theory-Based Abstinence-Only Program

Acting more responsibly... if educated in caution.

While abstinence-only intervention did not eliminate sexual activity all together, this is the first randomized controlled study to demonstrate that an abstinence-only intervention reduced the percentage of adolescents who reported any sexual intercourse for a long period, in this case two years, following the intervention.

"It is extremely important to find an effective intervention that delays sexual activity; the younger someone is when they have sex for the first time, the less likely they are to use condoms," said lead author John B. Jemmott III, PhD, professor of Communication in Psychiatry and of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine and Annenberg School for Communication. "Abstinence-only interventions may have an important role in delaying sexual activity until a time later in life when the adolescent is more prepared to handle to consequences of sex. This can reduce undesirable consequences of sex, including pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections like HIV/AIDS."

I'm reminded of a movie Michael Douglas did called "Strangers When we Meet" about an extra-marital affair. The danger of the affair was to the relationship and responsibilities he had at home. A few decades later, his son did a movie also about an affair, but then the horror of the movie was that the woman was a psychopath.

A similar transition might have happened among how we teach responsibility to children. Where educators worry about couples having children before they are responsible enough to take full care of them, to now worrying that they do not have enough sense of their own mortality to protect themselves from imminent danger.

However the study is good news any way you slice it. If it benefits pre-teens and teenagers, it should be well considered as a curriculum. And disease is a very important worry to safe-guard against. While averting from danger, we can also teach the lesson of responsibility within the bonds of creating a child. Its not a bad thing, its the right thing any one of us would want our parents to practice. That is probably somewhat tangential, yet it is the missing link between just having safe sex, and having a successful marriage.