Why Are American Teens So Ignorant About Sex and Birth Control?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/sex/155396/why_are_american_teens_so_ignorant_about_sex_and_birth_control/

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Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7

When it comes to sex and reproduction, even the most mind-numbingly intuitive conclusions can be politicized or disbelieved. So they bear repeating and resubstantiation. Take this recent Guttmacher study on contraceptive knowledge. Surveying 1,800 men and women ages 18–29, the authors “found that the lower the level of contraceptive knowledge among young women, the greater the likelihood that they expected to have unprotected sex in the next three months, behavior that puts them at risk for an unplanned pregnancy.” In other words, access to factual information helps prevent risky behavior.

I’m holding myself back from saying “duh” here, but this still has to be reiterated at a time when abstinence-only education that doesn’t provide detailed information about contraceptive use, except occasionally to emphasize its limits, not only persists but recently got a federal stamp of approval. As an Advocates for Youth report on the impact of abstinence-only education noted, “Proponents of abstinence-only programs believe that providing information about the health benefits of condoms or contraception contradicts their message of abstinence-only and undermines its impact. As such, abstinence-only programs provide no information about contraception beyond failure rates.” That’s how you get terrifying statistics like this one from the Guttmacher report: In the survey, “60 percent underestimated the effectiveness of oral contraceptives and 40 percent held the fatalistic view that using birth control does not matter.” Overall, “more than half of young men and a quarter of young women received low scores on contraceptive knowledge.” It’s also how you get figures like the one from the CDC that found that 31.4 percent of pregnant teens didn’t use contraception because they “thought they could not get pregnant at the time.”

[no_hypocrisy]

1. By contrast, in 1975 our sex ed teacher expected us to know

the five most effective forms of birth control (abstinence was a "gimme" and didn't count) and their failure rates.

[XemaSab]

9. In the early 90s

we had to take a semester of "health" that included every birth control method, STD, and drug under the sun. I think there was also some nutrition in there too.

IIRC, we learned about condoms, the pill, norplant, IUDs, diaphragms, the sponge, and the female condom. We also got a handout of 500 things to do other than having sex, of which mutual masturbation was one.

[southernyankeebelle]

2. Because the schools aren't letting the teachers teach about birth control. The

parents aren't doing the job they should be doing. My parents didn't, but when my youngest sister became 12 yrs old, me, my sister, and the 12 yrs and our mother sat down with her in the kitchen and had that talk. I remember it being uncomfortable and we laughed alot. But she knew and she was a virgin until she got married.

[SoutherDem]

3. Abstinence Only Education

I remember when the argument was should you be able to get condoms from the school nurse. Now it is should the sex ed teacher even tell the student what a condom is.

When I was in jr. high school the school brought in someone to teach a special sex ed class. Parents had to give permission for their child to attend. My mom did, although the church we attended did not want her to. The churches opinion was abstinence only and didn't want us to be taught how to have sex. Most kids at that age "know" how to have sex but they don't know how to not get pregnant or a STD.

The church I attended during high school had a weekend "retreat" where the youth were given abstinence only instruction.

The church I attended as an adult also had a weekend "retreat" where the youth were given abstinence preferable instruction which included safe sex instruction.

What were the results of the two churches methods to teaching sex?

The abstinence only had on average one unwed/planned pregnancy each year, usually involving the child of a deacon, sunday school teacher or some other faithful family, so we are not talking about someone who shows up for only 1 hour a week. (I attended this church for 8 years)

The abstinence preferable/safe sex had no unwed/unplanned pregnancies at all. (I attended this church for 12 years)

I know from a statistical aspect the results are not conclusive. Two similar sized but relatively small populations (40-50), different parts of town, different economic circumstances and different decades.

However, it still makes you think.

[demosincebirth]

4. Why are some teens so ignorant? period.

[yurbud]

5. because it's taught in school. When you get graded on your knowledge of sex...

only good students will know about it.

If you want to stop most kids from having sex, make it homework. Then they'll say they didn't do it because they were sick or their grandma died, but honor students will ask if they get extra credit for a three way.

[surrealAmerican]

6. I find it interesting that ...

... more boys than girls are severely misinformed:
"more than half of young men and a quarter of young women received low scores on contraceptive knowledge."

Presumably, the girls are getting information that the boys aren't, or at least some of them are.

[midnight]

7. Replies 1,2,and three are the reasons...

[awoke_in_2003]

8. I was lucky...

My father had the "talk" with me, plus we learned in school. Sex wasn't considered dirty, but natural

[Iris]

10. Ok. I'm a librarian so take this however you want - Why do teens need sex ed when they have

the internet?

I'm actually being tongue in cheek since I am hyper-sensitive to "Why do we need libraries when we have the Internet?"

But on one hand, I think this is a reasonable question. Scarlateen has been around since 1998. Planned Parenthood has a website with info about birth control options. If someone wants to educate herself about contraception, she can (so can "he's" for that matter)

On the other hand, I think just getting this information with no guidance is not the ideal situation for 15 year old. In fact, that goes back to my being a librarian. If I were helping a teenager find out about contraception, I'd probably point out websites that lack actual information or have questionable information.