New Study Examines Local School District's Sexuality and Abstinence Education Policies

A study in the November/December issue of Family Planning Perspectives provides a nationwide assessment of local sexuality education policies, including the extent to which they focus on abstinence.

Results are based on questionnaires sent to a nationally representative sample of 825 school district superintendents across the country.

Superintendents were asked a variety of questions about their sexuality education policies. For the purposes of this study, "sexuality or abstinence education" was defined as "any and all health education relating to human sexuality, including family life, abstinence until marriage, postponing sexual involvement, and avoidance of STDs or HIV and unintended pregnancy." "Policy" was defined as "any guidance that applies, district wide, to sexuality education in the schools."

The authors distinguished three types of sexuality education policies. Comprehensive policies address abstinence as one option in a broader education program designed to prepare adolescents to become sexually healthy adults.

Abstinence-plus policies promote abstinence as the preferred option for adolescents but also allow the discussion of contraception as effective in protecting against unintended pregnancy and STDs/HIV. Abstinence-only policies promote abstinence as the only option outside of marriage and either prohibit discussion of contraception or limit discussion to contraception failure.

Findings

Sexuality Education Policy

• 69% of all U.S. school districts have a policy to teach sexuality education. The remaining 31% leave policy decisions concerning sexuality education to individual schools or teachers.

• 86% of all U.S. students reside in school districts that have sexuality education policies.

Policy Type

• Among districts with a sexuality education policy, 14% have a comprehensive policy, 51% have an abstinence-plus policy, and 35% have an abstinence-only policy.

• School districts in the Northeast are the most likely to have a district wide policy to teach sexuality education (86%); Midwestern school districts are most likely to leave policy decisions up to individual schools or teachers. Districts in the South and West are near the national average.

• 55% of districts with a sexuality policy in the South have an abstinence-only policy, while only 20% of districts in the Northeast have such a policy.

Changes in District Policy

• 53% of district superintendents who knew when their current district policy was adopted reported that it was after 1995, 31% reported that it was between 1990-1995, and 16% said that it was earlier than 1990.

• Among districts that changed their policy, 33% reported that their policy had changed from either a comprehensive to an abstinence-plus policy or from an abstinence-plus to an abstinence-only policy. In contrast, 16% reported that their policy had moved either from an abstinence-only policy to a less restrictive policy or from an abstinence-plus policy to a comprehensive policy.

• 48% of superintendents cited state directives as the most influential factor in policy changes, 18% cited special committees, and 17% cited school boards.

Community Response

• 53% of superintendents said that the community at large was "generally silent" on the issue of the district's sexuality education policy, 41% said the community "strongly supports" the policy, 5% said was that it is divided, and fewer than 1% said that the community was "generally opposed" to the policy.

• Superintendents in districts with abstinence-only policies were less likely to report that the community was "generally silent" about the policy and somewhat more likely to report higher levels of community support.

It is important to note that data for this study was collected in early 1998 before states began implementing any federally-funded, abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs.

Nonetheless, the findings show that more than a third of districts with a sexuality education policy require the teaching of abstinence as the only option outside of marriage.

The authors explain that there is a "dearth of research demonstrating that the abstinence-only approach is effective in delaying young people's sexual initiation." In contrast, there is a growing volume of evidence to show that broader educational approaches appear to delay sexual initiation and encourage contraceptive use when young people begin to engage in sexual activity.

They add that previous research has found that more than 70% of young Americans aged 18 to 19 have initiated sexual intercourse and, therefore, "the provision of adequate and accurate information about contraception even while supporting the choice of young people who are delaying sexual initiation should continue to be a high national priority."

Finally, the authors note that additional research is necessary to monitor and evaluate whether the federal welfare reform law that provides funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage education results in additional changes in local school district policy on the teaching of abstinence and sexuality education.

For more information:

David J. Landry, et al, "Abstinence Promotion and the Provision of Information About Contraception in Public School District Sexuality Education Policies." Family Planning Perspectives, November/December, 1999, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 280-86.