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sex-ed programs with an abstinence-only message may help to delay the start of sexual activity for certain populations of children, a new study suggests.
The researchers looked at the effectivenessof various sex-ed programs for African American middle-school students. They found that, after two years, a program that urged kids to abstain from sex all together reduced the percentage of studentswho started having sex by about one-third compared with a health course that didn't include sex education (a control group).
Other types of sex-ed programs, such as ones promoting "safe sex" (notabstinence), were not found to significantly delay the start of sex compared with the control group.

Sex-ed programs with an abstinence-only message may help to delay the start of sexual activity forcertain populations of children, a new study suggests.
The researchers looked at the effectiveness of various sex-ed programs for African American middle-school students. They found that, after twoyears, a program that urged kids to abstain from sex all together reduced the percentage of students who started having sex by about one-third compared with a health course that didn't include sexeducation (a control group).
Other types of sex-ed programs, such as ones promoting "safe sex" (not abstinence), were not found to significantly delay the start of sex compared with the control group.The study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association, is the first of its kind to find that abstinence programs canreduce rates of sexual activity among adolescents followed over such a long time.
However, the results do not indicate that abstinence education is necessarily the best way to teach children about therisks of sexual behavior, nor do they suggest that other types of programs should be disregarded, the researchers say.
"The take-home message is that abstinence-only interventions can be used as one...