Programs to prevent teen sex

CNN's Jeanne Meserve, right, speaks with Douglas Kirby on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world. A new report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found some surprising facts on what programs are effective in reducing teen sexual behavior.

CNN Correspondent Jeanne Meserve spoke with the report's author, professor Douglas Kirby.

MESERVE: Is there one best way to get the message across?

KIRBY: There are no magic bullets, but nevertheless, there is very encouraging news that a variety of different kinds of programs really can reduce sexual risk-taking among young people and can reduce teen pregnancy and child-bearing.

MESERVE: It's interesting that some of the programs that appear to be successful aren't necessarily about sex.

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KIRBY: That's true. Some do deal with sex and some do not. For example, among those that do not are voluntary service in the community. When young people become intensively involved in community service and prepare for it and reflect afterwards, they become less likely to be pregnant during the years and months that they're involved.

MESERVE: When it comes to programs that do deal with sex and HIV, there has been some concern that they may promote sexual activity. Did your research find that to be the case?

KIRBY: The research is very clear on that. Programs do not increase sexual activity. They do not hasten the onset of sex, they do not increase the frequency of sex, nor do they increase the number of sexual partners. In fact, some but not all of the programs actually delayed sex, decreased the frequency and decreased the number of partners. That's very encouraging.

MESERVE: In the wake of the Welfare Reform Law of 1996, which provided a lot of money for abstinence education, there had been a number of those programs put in place. What did you find about the effectiveness of abstinence programs?

	VIDEO
A new report calls for the dual message of abstinence and safe sex for teen pregnancy prevention. CNN's Elaine Quijano reports (May 30) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

KIRBY: What we found is the jury is still out. We do not know. The evidence is simply not there. There have been only three studies, and there's a great diversity of abstinence-only programs. We cannot generalize from those three studies. They did not find that they delayed the onset of sex, but probably, in fact, there are some abstinence-only programs that do delay the onset of sex. We just don't know which ones they are.

MESERVE: You looked at a wide array of different kinds of programs, but I'm wondering what parents can glean from your research, if they want to deal with this problem one on one with their child?

KIRBY: If they want to deal one on one, they should definitely talk with their own kids. They should express their values clearly. They should provide information to their children. They should also encourage the schools in their community to implement programs that do talk about sex, condoms and contraception, because those programs do work.