The Washington Post published an article yesterday claiming that “abstinence-only programs might work.”  The article presents a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine where 662 African American students in the 6th and 7th grades were placed into random groups to evaluate the efficiency of an abstinence-focused education in young students.

The study separated the students into four groups: the first group participated in an 8-hour abstinence-focused class, the second group participated in an 8-hour safer sex-only class that focused on condom use, the third group participated in 8 and 12-hour classes that integrated both, and the fourth participated in a healthy-living class that focused on other ways to be healthy not relating to sexual activity.

Two years later, the students from each of the four groups reported whether or not they had lost their virginity. Fewer of the abstinence-focused students (33%)  reported losing their virginity than did the safer sex-only students (52%). Students who participated in the comprehensive program had less sexual partners than those in the control group (the healthy-living class).

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