The number of sexually active teenagers has dropped
over the last ten years from 54% - 47%.

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The Mathematica Study

Recent news media outlets have reported that a Mathematica study shows that abstinence programs do not work, and, therefore, all federally funded abstinence programs should be defunded.

Well, here's the rest of the story.

In Fall 1998, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded a competitive contract to Mathematica Policy Research to conduct an independent evaluation of Section 510 abstinence education programs.

On 4/14/07 the Mathematica Policy Research firm released a study on the effectiveness of what they call “abstinence-only” education to elementary and middle school students.  The Mathematica study found that students in the abstinence programs studied became sexually active at the same rate and had the same number of partners as those not receiving the instruction.

Click here to read the Mathematica research.

A few months ago we were at a conference where Dr. Stanley Weed, who was part of the original Mathematica study, spoke.  In his talk he said that this study only involved 4 programs and 2300 students that were randomly assigned to a program or control group.  Therefore, he said it is not to be generalized that since these 4 programs did not work, that all abstinence programs do not work.  (Which is how many in the media have spoken.)

A couple of other interesting things need to be spoken of about these 4 programs.  One program was only taught to students for one grade level and another program was only taught to 5th and 6th graders.  Most would agree that these programs didn't stand much of a chance of being influential in the long term.

One of the control groups was exposed to abstinence ideas through other means, so this aspect of the research was contaminated as well. 

Also, all 4 of these programs were changed before this information was first released in 2007.  It would be interesting to see if they have improved.

So, with what you know now, click over to our research page to find more info on our abstinence program and other programs that do work.