Posted on 01/05/2006 6:54:35 AM PST by Millee
Most sexually active teenage girls know relatively little about sexually transmitted diseases until it is too late, according to new research.
In a survey of 300 adolescent girls in the Pittsburgh area, Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that girls who reported having been diagnosed with an STD knew more about that particular disease than other girls, but did not know more about the other diseases.
The findings are published in the January edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
On average, with the exception of HIV/AIDS, the teens did not know many basic facts about STDs, said Julie Downs, lead author of the study.
"Our schools have decided to focus on AIDS, and that has come at a cost," she said. "Teens just aren't being taught about these other diseases, and so they may come away with a false sense of confidence."
The study's findings are troubling because teenagers who know little about STDs are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and to delay the treatment of STDs, the researchers said.
And the consequences can be severe. Genital herpes, for example, cannot be cured. Genital warts can render a woman more susceptible to cervical cancer, and chlamydia can lead to infertility.
"60% of first babies in Sweden are born to unmarried moms."
What % of that 60% are teenagers? That's the demographic in question in this thread.
60% of first babies in Sweden are born to unmarried moms.
You are equating unwed births with teen births- they are not the same. While most teen births are out of wedlock, most unwed births are not to teenagers.
Of course! Telling kids who are confused or on the fence that they can have all the risk-free sex they want if they only use condoms (with their 15% failure rate) won't make a single additional one take the plunge and start having sex so she can fit in with her peers. Why didn't I think of that? Of course teenagers are invulnerable to pressure from outside sources!
"Comprehensive sex education" is a euphemism for a multi-year advertisement for promiscuity paid for by tax payers. And we all know that advertisements never change behavior, that's why nobody bothers to advertise anymore.
</sarcasm>
No, I'm not. Unwed births are much worse over the long term. Babies need Daddies. No marriage, likely no Daddy when he gets bored and moves on.
Go to Yahoo and query "Northwestern Medical School" and "abstinence education". I don't have time to look it up, but they did a formal study which showed that abstinence training had a positive impact.
"Maybe, we should also give free abortions to teen girls that will lower the teen birth rate too. /sarc"
Nope. But an unfortunate consequence of not sexually-educating teens is both high teen pregnancy rates, high teenage abortion rates, and increased size of Welfare state, all of which I oppose.
"Go to Yahoo and query "Northwestern Medical School" and "abstinence education". I don't have time to look it up, but they did a formal study which showed that abstinence training had a positive impact.
"
I don't have time either (lunch!!) but could point you to studies that show it's having a negative impact.
Regardless, I'm appreciative of yours and others opinions in this thread and am amazed that everyone on both sides have generally stayed respectful on what's obviously a polarizing topic.
Where in the world do you live?? The public high schools have extensive sex eductaion, starting in middle schools. STD's, bananas, condoms, homosexuality.. it's all there.
Teenagers just don't give a sh@t, and don't pay attention. 60% of college coeds end up with one HPV or another, and they think it's a rite of passage.
So don't throw out this crap about "abstinence" being the problem. Lots and lots and lots of teenagers use condoms (when they think of it)and HPV infection is rampant. Go figure.
Especially the trip to jail -- nothing like being observers behind a one-way mirror watching some fresh punk tricked out by his homosexual rapist "roommate" to put the fear of G*d into juvenile delinquents...
That's what Planned Parenthood would like. If they could, they would have abortion clinics next door to urban high schools.
The probel is that the ":tipping-point" was reached after social pressures were eased. Fifty years ago, a teen age girl who got pregnant was made ashamed. Some injustice in that, but it made them more careful. The easy availability of antibiotics has also made people careless. Back during wotld war II, because antibiotics became available, there were more soldiers disabled with STDs than with any other form of ailment. With the "Superbugs", we seem to be moving back to that situation.
Oh, for heaven's sake, how old are you?
I never said we haven't TRIED to educate them; I pointed out the obvious, that we've FAILED. Or more accurately, that education as it currently exists, is NOT the answer to prevention of teen VD.
Unlike you, my reading comprehension is limited to what is actually included in the reading, rather than what I invent, assume, or misinterpret.
You don't think ALL unwed births present problems?
later pingout. I guess they're not teaching the most basic of basics - that there's a host of really bad, incurable diseases out there and if you abstain from sex before marriage, marry someone else who did the same, you will never, ever get any of them.
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