Re:The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bri...
by identity-haver on Monday March 18, 2019 @04:54PM
(#19425180)
Here's a large study indicating that states with the highest abstinence education level had 25% higher teen pregnancies than states with the lowest level [1], after not controlling for Hispanic teen population, the teen population demographic with the highest birth rate. Whereas, here's one claiming that state policy affected STI rates, but not pregnancy rates [2].
edit: these studies consider "effective" to mean "reduces teen pregnancy + STI rates". Many organizations including WHO consider what they call comprehensive sex education to be a human right, in which case abstinence-only education can never be effective.
Re:The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bri...
by gus_massa on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @02:23PM
(#19433865)
About the first: Correlation does not imply causation. It's very difficult to be sure if the same communities that makes laws to force abstinence-only education also make other laws like forbidding than teenagers get sexual counseling in hospitals without their parents. (And it's imposible to be sure unless you kidnap all the children and put them in two isolated islands in randomized groups.)
Also, they classify the states according to the legislation about abstinence-only education:
0: no mention of abstinence
1: mention, but no promotion
2: promotion of abstinence
3: stressing abstinence as the fundamental teaching standard
It's very interesting that the pregnancy rates for 0 is very similar than 2. 1 is better, 3 is worse. Perhaps the states that don't mention it apply a strong implicit social pressure?
About the second one: I didn't expect this result.
Re:The rise and fall of scientific authority, and how to bri...
by unknownkadath on Monday March 18, 2019 @12:07PM
(#19422271)
Have you had a look around PubMed?
How did we prove that it doesn't work? I agree that it doesn't work, but I have a very hard time imagining how to make a study to prove it.