Gov't releases abstinence report

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has now released the full results of a government study that will give behavioral scientists insight into how parental attitudes and social norms are key to promoting abstinence before marriage, rather than sex ed programs. Until now, HHS had been criticized for its delayed release of the full results of the study, as only an executive summary of the study’s final conclusions were available. LifeSiteNews

The 196-page report entitled National Survey of Adolescents and Their Parents: Attitudes and Opinions About Sex and Abstinence had several findings that appeared to controvert conventional wisdom on teen attitudes and sex education. For example, the report found that “adolescents and parents generally oppose pre-marital sex,” adding that adolescents have slightly more permissive views than their parents. Approximately 70 percent of parents were morally opposed to their teens having premarital sex, while just over 60 percent of teens agreed that only married persons should have sex. Parental and social attitudes toward sex and abstinence were far more influential than classroom education, even when abstinence-based. HHS report