What are we teaching, what are they doing?

Sexual education in high schools have been a hotly debated issue for sometime now. Switching from comprehensive to abstinence based has left us wondering what exactly are we teaching in terms of sexual education. We surveyed 368 college students at a Southeastern university using an anonymous questionnaire related to sexual behaviors. Most students were taught about STI prevention (86.1%), followed by abstinence (82.9%), anatomy and physiology (76.6%), responsible decision making (72.6%), condom use (71.2%), healthy relationships (63%), birth control (60.3%), communication (53.3%), and finally religion (14.4%). However, if you look at the amount of effort used for certain topics in our curriculum; it is interesting to compare the output for these. For instance, when asked in the sex education influenced decisions regarding abstinence, only 23.9% responded “yes.” The same is true for “age at first sexual encounter” with only 28.3% responding that sex education was an influence. Only 30.4% replied that sexual education influenced communication. Sex education seemed to influence a few more students in responsible decision making (59.8%), pregnancy prevention (62.0%), and STI prevention (62.8%). These data reflect the challenge in sexual education in the United States. Although sex education may influence on certain topics, there is still a gap in prominent issues such as communication. There is still a huge amount of emphasis placed on abstinence, however, this topic seems ineffective in this study. We must encourage a more comprehensive approach to sexual education programs with more effective interventions aimed at keeping teens healthy and informed.