Wednesday, November 11, 2009

About those "abstinence doesn't work" studies

Apparently, at least two people working for the CDC have raised an alarm that CDC studies of the effectiveness of abstinence based sex education were deliberately, and politically, manipulated to undermine data demonstrating statistically significant reductions in sexual experimentation after abstinence based sex education.

No surprise to me; I took a look at one such study from Minnesota back in 2004 or so, and what I found was that the "study" hadn't even bothered to select a control sample or perform any statistical tests. When I did so, I found exactly the opposite of what the study had--with 99% statistical confidence. A paltry nine weeks of sex ed significantly reduced sexual experimentation, even in our sex saturated culture.

As I've noted many times before, peer review doesn't guarantee competent research anymore, if it ever did.

2 comments:

K-Rod said...

Well, well, well.

Dog Gone has an obsession against teaching abstinence, she supports the federal government teaching our children how to have sex.

I wouldn't expect a response from her on this news.

The fact remains, proper use of abstinence to sexual activity is 100% effective.

Why is that so hard for some liberals to understand?

Bike Bubba said...

I think they understand; they simply know that a libertine lifestyle can't be sustained if the real risks of fornication are known.