This story was on the Canadian Broadcasting website today:

An experimental abstinence-only program without a moralistic tone can delay young teens from having sex, a new U.S. study found.

Billed as the first rigorous research to show long-term success with an abstinence-only approach, the study released Monday differed from traditional programs that have lost U.S. federal and state support in recent years.

'The message was not mixed with any other messages.'— John Jemmott III

The classes didn't preach saving sex until marriage or disparage condom use. Instead, they involved assignments to help students around the age of 12 see the drawbacks to sexual activity at their age. It included having them list the pros and cons themselves, and it found their "cons" far outnumbered the "pros."

The study appears in the February edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. It involved 662 black children in Philadelphia.

The students were assigned to one of four options:

* Eight hour-long abstinence-only classes.
* Safe-sex classes.
* Classes incorporating both approaches.
* Classes in general healthy behaviour.

Two years later, about one-third of abstinence-only students said they'd had sex since the classes ended, versus nearly half — about 49 per cent — in each of the other three groups.
Programs often don't work

Critics of abstinence-only programs have long argued that most evidence shows they don't work. The new study challenges those results, but even the authors say this doesn't mean more comprehensive sex education should be ignored.

The abstinence-only program was based on social psychology theories about what motivates behaviour. It encouraged abstinence as a way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Psychologist John Jemmott III, the lead author, called the findings surprising given the negative results in previous abstinence-only research. Jemmott said the single focus may have been better at encouraging abstinence than the other approaches in his study.
Single-message approach

"The message was not mixed with any other messages," said Jemmott, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has long studied ways to reduce risky behaviour among inner-city youngsters.

Monica Rodriguez of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, an advocacy group favouring comprehensive sex education, said the study doesn't mean other abstinence-only programs would work.

"It's unfair to compare this abstinence-only intervention to the typical abstinence-only-until-marriage program that young people in this country have been put through," she said. These typically portray sex and condom use in a more negative light, she said.

Rodriguez said the program studied might be one approach to try with younger children, but it probably would be less successful with older, more sexually experienced teens.
Many already sexually active

Almost one-fourth of the teens studied said they'd already had sex at least once, similar to other studies of urban, mostly black children of middle school age, around 11 to 13 years old.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Program, praised the study and said she hopes it revives U.S. government interest in abstinence-only sex education.

Last year, researchers in Toronto reported teens are being sexually active but are not getting the information or services they need to be properly educated about sex. The study's authors recommended age-appropriate sexual education for all grades, starting in kindergarten.
The U.S. study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/02/01/abstain-sex-ed.html#ixzz0eL4vwp7Y