Study of Condom-Based Curricula Exposes Errors

Federal report shines light on misleading and sexually explicit information taught to teens

A recently released federal study of nine popular teen sex education programs that promote condom use shows that these programs are misleading in their content and mostly ineffective over a six-month period in reducing sexual activity among teens and in protecting young people against the risks of teen sexual activity.

Sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the study, “Review of Comprehensive Sex Education Curricula,” focused on programs that receive tax dollars. It also provides a rare look into the actual content of nine popular “comprehensive sex education” curricula, showing them to be saturated with sexual references and condom illustrations and filled with exercises such as shopping for condoms.

Although “comprehensive” sex education programs are supposed to teach about both abstinence and condoms, the study showed that even the most even-handed curriculum mentioned condoms and contraception seven times more than abstinence. In most of the other curricula, the abstinence message was lost amid the overwhelmingly positive treatment of condoms and other contraceptive methods.

For example, one curriculum states, “Just talking about how you’ll use all of those condoms can be a turn on,” and “Showering together is a green light [no-risk] activity.”

Another curriculum that mentions abstinence 18 times and condoms 650 times, tells teens, “The surest way not to get HIV is to practice safer sex,” ignoring the 100 percent effectiveness of abstinence.

In addition to highlighting the medically inaccurate information in the curricula studied (mostly about a spermicide that is said to reduce HIV transmission when it does not), the federal study documented misleading statements about the effectiveness of condoms in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that could cause students to think that condoms provide all the protection they need.

Also significant is the fact that none of the nine condom-based curricula even mentions the possibility of the negative emotional impact sexual activity can have upon teens.

The study concluded, “The fact that the stated purpose and the actual content of these curricula emphasize ways to lessen the risks associated with sexual activity – and not necessarily avoiding sexual activity – may explain why research shows them to be more effective at increasing condom use than at delaying sexual debut.”

Commenting on the study, John P. Margand, Esq., Chief Executive Officer of the Healthy Respect abstinence program, stated, “I am very concerned about the gap in media coverage of this issue as it relates to our children's health and future. The media seems to embrace anti-abstinence news while ignoring evidence showing that abstinence education works. This is surprising, given that ‘comprehensive’ sex-ed programs receive nearly ten times more federal funding than do authentic abstinence programs.”

Mr. Margand concluded, “we at Healthy Respect are even more committed to getting out the message about the truly safe and life-enhancing benefits of abstinence until marriage. It is the only message that has at heart the best interest of our teens.”

You can read the federal “Review of Comprehensive Sex Education Curricula” here.