LOS ANGELES — A new study shows for the first time that a sex-education class emphasizing abstinence only — ignoring moral implications of sexual activity — can reduce sexual activity by nearly a third in 12- and 13-year-olds compared with students who received no sex education.
Other forms of sex education also worked, however, reducing sexual activity by about 20 percent and reducing multiple sexual partners by about 40 percent, according to the study reported Monday in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
None of the classes appeared to influence the use of condoms or other birth control when the students did have sex. The children thus remained at risk of pregnancy and disease.
The Obama administration has cut funding for abstinence-only programs and intends to fund only interventions that have been found to work. The new study is expected to provide support for such interventions.
