Sex-ed less effective in red states, study says

[IDemo]

By Christopher Wanjek
LiveScience

Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study.

Perhaps paradoxically, states with a majority conservative population and higher degree of religiosity tend to have higher teen birthrates. The findings suggest that the social structure of the state, such as the degree of conservatism, can undermine the effect of the sex curricula.

The researchers, from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSL), do not recommend abstinence-based education, but rather crafting sex education curricula that take into account the influences of a state's sociopolitical composition. The study appears today (Feb. 6) in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The U.S. adolescent birthrate is by far the highest among industrialized nations. The birthrate among girls ages 15 to 19 was 39.1 per 1,000 teens in this age group in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The rate in Western Europe ranges from about 24 per 1,000 teens in the U.K. (slightly lower than the U.S. white non-Hispanic rate) to four in the Netherlands.

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/06/10334156-sex-ed-less-effective-in-red-states-study-says

[elleng]

1. 'Cause they don't want to TALK about it!!!

SHHHH! Maybe it'll just go away!!!

[Liberal Veteran]

4. Sex is bad, m'kay?

We need to take a lesson from our friends in those evil socialist countries in Europe on how to approach the subject of sexuality instead of taking our directions from our puritan ancestors.

[JoePhilly]

15. My wife grew up in NC and her family was very, very, religious ... and ...

she said that when she went to college, she was SHOCKED because her parents had sheltered her from reality.

All of the "bad people" her parents told her about were actually nice. And the people who were supposed to be the good ones, well, lots of them were not nice at all.

The first guy who ever tried to get in her pants was the teenage leader of their church bible study. She said he was always hitting on her, and that the other girls were in love with him because he was the leader. She said she hated him, and avoided him, but her parents made her go to the group even-though she didn't want to. She only told her mother about it 20 some years later.

That guy ended up getting one of the other girls in the group pregnant while both were still teens. Apparently, their family's "prayed" over it, and so they got married, had the baby, and then divorced about 3 years later.

More than 20 years ago, my wife and I got engaged and then moved in together. For the year that we "lived in sin" her father would not speak to her. When she would call home, he'd hand the phone to my wife's mother. We were instructed to NEVER let anyone in their church know that we were living together (which was easy, we lived 6 hours away). At the wedding, when people asked us if we'd found a place to live yet, we smiled and said "yes we had", leaving out that we'd found it a year earlier.

20 years later, its better, of their 3 son-in-laws, I'm the only one who has not cheated on their daughter, not abused her physically or emotionally, nor have I found it necessary to move her and I, and our kids and assorted pets BACK into their home. During the last 20+ years, there has ALWAYS been at least one of the others living back in their house.

You could fill ENCYCLOPEDIAS with the things they don't talk about while thinking "SHHHH! Maybe it'll just go away!!!"

[elleng]

18. Quite a story, JoeP. Guess I'm not surprised,

but kind of amazed to see/hear it in real life. (Wasn't like that at all when/where I grew up, NYC/suburbs.)

[JoePhilly]

20. Same for me growing up in Philly.

When my wife and I moved in together, my mother help us move ... meanwhile, my wife was not allowed to even tell her older, adult, sisters or her slightly younger brother.

[RainDog]

27. JoePhilly - I know your story in slight variations

in about five different ways in my family...plus quite a few other moments of wtf.

[JoePhilly]

28. I believe it.

My wife and I discuss this and its like, my family focused on pragmatic survival, and hers tended to set facts and reality aside. And even hide from them.

On the extreme, its like thinking that you can pray away cancer.

My wife "broke free" ... and so she constantly has "wtf" moments when she talks to them. She is a very strong person who is not afraid to talk about anything, and it drives her crazy that her family does so much to avoid and hide from reality.

[RainDog]

29. I kept my maiden name

and, when both my kids were born, my family begged me to put my husband's name as mine so that people wouldn't think my children were bastards.

I was... wtf.

I happen to live where keeping your last name wasn't odd - they were living in a situation where they couldn't imagine that a women would keep her last name... even tho it was done all the time.

and even if not - why would I care if someone was so small minded that they would speculate on my married state? those who knew me knew and so what about anyone else? I guess they were worried about any announcements or... I think they really just wanted to express how "unnatural" it was that I would not want to take someone else's name.

I couldn't believe they would go to such lengths to insult someone who thought her last name was good enough to keep her entire life. my dad, however, never said anything. my kids have my family name as their middle names and he later thanked me for that. I guess that's why he never said anything...

[XemaSab]

17. I'm guessing that the mentality is

that if you PLAN for sex, you're a hooooooooor.

Whereas if sex just happens, you're still a good kid.

Buying rubbers, going on the pill, and so forth involve PLANNING for sex, and good kids don't do that.

[yellowcanine]

21. Exactly. And "True Love Waits" bs with their silver rings and pendants.

http://www.lifeway.com/images/39058380-edca-4ed6-ba2b-752fdab2bde6?width=201

[Boombaby]

2. In most of those states, the "sex curriculam" is

SEX MAKES BABY JESUS CRY!

[kestrel91316]

3. Just give the kids bibles and they'll figure everything out.

[yellowcanine]

22. They could certainly get some pointers form Song of Solomon.

[HockeyMom]

6. Abstience Only Sex Ed

doesn't work.

[LynneSin]

7. Ignorance is Bliss...

or in conservative states - Baby Bliss.

Thanks to Nancy Reagan, we learned ages ago that 'Just Say No' policies are a big FAIL. It didn't stop the drug war and it's not going to stop two horny kids the the backseat of their parents mini-van.

I have absolutely no problem with abstinence education because honestly, waiting to have sex is the surest way to prevent pregnancy and STDs including HIV. However along with abstinence, safe sex practice should also be instructed so that when kids really don't want to say 'no' they aren't stuck with a lifetime commitment of a child or disease.

[Mopar151]

10. Lying to kids has NEVER worked,

And the kids, wisely, want to know WHY, m'kay? Abstinence is effective, and probably for the best, but the kids need to know the whole truth - "cuz if you don't tell 'em, the stuff they'll make up will be far worse.

[Demeter]

8. Just Following Scripture: Be Fruitful and Multiply

Can't fault the kids for what they are, or are not, taught.

[Scootaloo]

9. They'll try to spin this, of course.

"See?! Sex ed doesn't help at all!"

[izquierdista]

11. In other words.....

Y'all is a bunch of dumb fucks.




[font size = 1]Why is it those most in need of education are the ones least likely to get it?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. incidence of STDs are far higher in girls whose daddies took control of their vaginas

in those damned Purity Balls, or whatever you call them. What pissed me off was that under Bush, there was funding given to several ultra conservative churches to have such daddums-daughter balls.

I attended one wedding where daddums had retained ownership, and made a speech about giving it away. (her special quality, saved for her husband, blessed by god, as he called it) There was no question what he was talking about. It turned the stomachs of most people there, except for a few bible beaters.

Funny, the bible beaters were the most arrogant, in your face, assholes at the party. Ok, it wasn't that funny.

[JoePhilly]

13. The videos I've seen of those dances are CREE--EEEPY.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up just thinking about it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. highest STD rates, highest teen pregnancy rates, and

they call it a success?

[Tom Ripley]

14. I bet red-staters have more problems with the "education" part rather than the "sex" part

[TlalocW]

19. Sex Education Works - At Least in My Case

And it was self-education, which is good because in 9th grade health class (taught by the football coach of course), sex education for the boys was literally this (and I'm not kidding): Okay, chapter 8, sex education. *pause* Anyone NOT know? Okay, moving on to chapter 9...

Fortunately, in 6th grade, when our bodies were going through changes, and we had to shower after gym class, there was a lot of locker-room talk from the popular guys, and a lot of it didn't sound right (if you don't bounce right, the woman could die!). The popular guys in my class were the stupid ones as well so I didn't take their word for it. I went to my local library (small farming community in Kansas), found what books I could on sex, found a bigger book to place them in (a large paged Charlie Brown and Peanuts anthology), and read them in the most private corner of the library I could find. I could have taught - at least - the mechanics of the reproductive systems in 9th grade.

Of course, I'm sure part what became my abstinence-only lifestyle was that I had no chance to have sex in high school what with being the biggest nerd in school, but at least I knew and understood the pros and cons of having sex at that age.

TlalocW

[Brigid]

23. One thing I notice about these studies:

The girls are the focus, and the fathers of the babies, whether teenage or adult, are barely mentioned. Why is nothing done to teach sex-ed to the male gender? Girls don't get pregnant by themselves.

[juajen]

24. Why is everyone ignoring the elephant in the room?

A lot, and I mean a lot, of these men are owning their little girls' vagina's literally as well as figuratively. I know. I am from the South, raised here and have seen and heard it all, even including judges who were really into their daughters. Some of those guy's tears when they give away the bride are really, really because they are being deprived. Sick, but so true.

[Redstate Bluegirl]

25. Behind the Times AND

Beyond Belief!

[RainDog]

26. This article leads me to a few questions

1. how much money is used by the states to help lower-income residents afford birth control?

2. how much of this is yet another example of a refusal to accept reality - i.e. cause and effect - thinking that god will protect her, rather than hvae a female accept that she is having a sexual relationship.

3. how much of this is because teenagers have to have consent to obtain birth control - and they will not do this b/c the parents would not allow it?

[LadyInAZ]

30. 3 words: Out-of-Time

Many southerns are 'out-of-time' ... this extends to education, social, economic, government etc. Many have not caught up to the 'rest of the world' forward thinking ... they are so concern with what the 'Joans think, feel, say, tell' ... that any new concept or idea that its ok to do what the rest of the world does isnt part of what they were breed to believe or understand objectively ... its like they are permanent stuck in a 'time warp' ... for generations ...

... too many are out of touch with is consider socialible acceptable... Birth control and education is spoke in schools to help kids make the right decision which can effect the rest of their lives...

Well hopefully they will wise up soon ...