Indiana: Survey Finds Support for Showing Students How to Use Condoms

Most Indiana residents surveyed believed public high schools should teach teens how to use condoms properly to prevent HIV/AIDS, but they oppose distributing free condoms in school, according to research presented Thursday by Indiana University professor William L. Yarber at the meeting of the Society for Scientific Study of Sexuality in San Antonio.

Of those surveyed:

• 82 percent agreed that teenagers who use condoms are being responsible.
• 80 percent disagreed with the statement that a person who carries a condom has a lot of casual sex.
• 77 percent favored teaching high school students how to use condoms properly.
• 71 percent favored letting students see and touch condoms as part of classroom instruction.
• 71 percent said local parents should determine what is taught about condom use.
• 68 percent disagreed with the statement that promoting condom use is the same as promoting sex.
• 54 percent favored explicit instruction on how to use condoms -- for example, by showing how to put one on a banana or other object.
• 46 percent favored distributing free condoms in schools.

However, only 39 percent thought condoms were "very effective" at preventing the spread of HIV and STDs, despite scientific consensus that they can reduce risk, Yarber said.

"Overall, the study shows that Hoosiers are adamant that medically accurate instruction of how to use condoms -- not just that condoms exist -- should be present in our high schools, said Yarber, a senior research fellow in the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

The random telephone poll of 500 adults statewide, conducted by IU's Center for Survey Research between July and October, has a ±4.4 percent margin of error. A similar 1993 study found 79 percent supported teaching teenagers proper condom use.

Back to other news for November 7, 2003