Comprehensive Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 1

Running head: Comprehensive
Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 1

Comprehensive
Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education:
Which
is More Effective in Preventing Teen Pregnancy?

Amber
Yehle
Kyle Marchese
Anderson
Francois
Elizabeth
Whitbeck
Principals
of EpidemiologyIHP-330-X4332
Dr.
Payne
May
25, 2016
Running head:
Comprehensive Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 2
Comprehensive
Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education:
Which
is More Effective in Preventing Teen Pregnancy?
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports both comprehensive sexual
education and “abstinence-only” programs within schools, to help prevent
unplanned teenage pregnancy(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016,
para. 6). Unplanned pregnancies among
teenagers has been considered an epidemic in the United States, since the
1970s. “In 2014, a total of 249,078
babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 24.2 per 1,000
women in this age group. This is another historic low for U.S. teens and
a drop of 9% from 2013” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016,
para. 1).“The United States leads the world in teen pregnancy rates and teen
birth rates. Compared to France, the US numbers are more than tripled”(Health
Research Funding, 2014, para. 2).
Hypothesis: If lower rates in teenage pregnancy are related to exposure
of comprehensive sexual education programs, then teenagers exposed to
comprehensive sexual education are less likely to become pregnant than teens
who are solely exposed to “abstinence-only” education programs. Amber
Question 1:Why did you choose this health issue? Please describe the issue
itself and why it is of interest to research.
Answer:Teenage
pregnancy is a concern to public health because although incidence rates are
slowly declining, there is an indication that pregnancy among the teenaged
population continues to be high.This health issue is in need of research to
determine if educating teens about sex (sexual education) is more effective
than the simple concept of “not engaging in sexual activity before marriage”
(abstinence only), decreases pregnancy rates.
Teenaged mothers who are faced with early pregnancy are more likely to
experience lower levels of education or drop-out of high school, suffer from
financial difficulties, and experience social, behavior, and emotional
issues.
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Comprehensive Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 3
Children of
teenaged mothers have an increased probability of repeating a similar pattern (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, para. 5). Amber
Question 2:What is the population you would study? How would you collect your
data (think time, type of information)?
Answer:The population chosen for the study would be divided into 2 groups
that total 60 (randomly selected) females between the ages of 18-25. Group 1 will be comprised of 30 females from New
Jersey,which requires comprehensive sexual education in schools, and Group 2
will be comprised of 30 females from Texas, which only offers “abstinence-only”
education programs. This retrospective
cohort study will examine data such as:
·
Age at first sexual contact.
·
If and what method of
contraceptive was used.
·
If participant became pregnant
as a teenager.
·
If pregnancy was planned.
·
If there was a completed
pregnancy.
·
If a pregnancy resulted in
miscarriage or abortion.
·
If communication about sex was
available in the home.
·
If they received the majority
of knowledge about from educational institution.
·
If they feel they delayed
engaging in sexual activity due to the information or education regarding sex
from their educational institutions.
·
If they feel that they were
more likely to use contraception activity due to the information or education
regarding sex from their educational institutions.
·
If they would recommend the
same method of educational program.

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Information
gathered will be from past events experienced by the participants that may
indicate effectiveness of each educational program. Data will be collected via confidential surveys
in which the participants will agree or disagree with the questions presented. Amber
Question 3:Describe the strengths and
weakness of the way in which your study is designed.
Answer:Strengths of the study: The participants are young enough in age where
memory may not skew details of past events from school years. The survey is confidential, so participants
may feel more comfortable about giving honest answers. The study is divided up into 2 groups to compare
results between educational programs.
Weaknesses of the study: Participants closer
to the age of 18 may have a better recollection of past events than those
closer to 25 years of age. Since the
content of the study is of a “private,” and “sensitive” nature, participants
may drop out due to ethical or personal reasons. The study does not account for initial sexual
contact that may have been “nonconsensual.” This study does not account for
disparities among race, religion, or socioeconomic class. Amber
Question 4:What would you expect to
find as results in your study?
Answer:I
would expect to find thatthe participants, who attended
schools that offered comprehensive sexual education as part of the standard
curriculum, would show higher rates of delayed sexual activity and use of
contraceptives, and lower rates of pregnancies.
My expectations are based on the theory that education and awareness of
early sexual activity and its consequences, give teenaged children options, and
the ability to decide whether to engage in early sexual activity, and what
precautions to take should they choose to engage. Simply removing information about sexual
health will not avert the teenage population from engaging sexual activity.
Amber
Question 5:Keeping in mind your answer
to question 4, create a null hypothesis.

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head: Comprehensive Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 5
Answer:Null hypothesis: Comprehensivesexual education has no effect in
lowering teenage pregnancy rates. Amber
Question
6:What additional hypotheses were you
considering? Why did you not include these?
Answer:When
creating this study there was consideration into other hypotheses. Is there an association between
social/economic status and the likelihood of becoming pregnant as a
teenager? Is there an association
between teenage pregnancies and failing to finish school? Is there a correlation between teenage
pregnancies and one’s regard for education?
In the end it was believed that correlating a relationship between comprehensive
sexual education, abstinence only education and likelihood of teenage pregnancy
would have a greater effect towards changing the approach chosen. Kyle
Question 7:Based
on the type of information you collected and the study design, what type of
analysis (e.g., odds ratio, relative risk) would you run in your research for
your hypothesis testing? Why? What does the type of analyses mean in laymen’s
terms?
Answer:Based on the
type of information collected we would use an odds ratio analysis in order to
test our hypothesis. The odds ratio
analysis represents the likelihood that an occurrence will happen when given an
exposure, compared to the likelihood of the outcome occurring absent of the
exposure (Szumilas, 2010). This is the
best method for our research because it shows a correlation between cause and
effect. Kyle
Question 8:We
use null hypotheses in testing associations to reduce types of error. Describe
this idea further, and explain ways in which testing for a null-hypothesis in
your hypothetical study would reduce error. Provide examples in which your
study could have errors that are corrected by hypothesis testing.

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head: Comprehensive Sexual Education versus Abstinence-only Education 5
Answer:A null
hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that an observed change is due to chance
rather than the variable. If during your
study you prove the null hypothesis to be true then you are confirming that your
results did not differ based on chance alone.
This allows for confirmation of the original hypothesis. Errors in this study could come in different
forms, to correct this different hypothesis tests could be completed. Reporting errors from the participants are
possible. To help mitigate this issue multiple
samples can be tested from the same demographics. In our stated null hypothesis; comprehensivesexual
education has no effect in lowering teenage pregnancy rates, this could be
tested by completing another study group where there is comparison between
comprehensive sexual education and no sexual education and pregnancy rates of a
stated population. Kyle

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References
Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. (2016, April 5). About teen pregnancy: Teen
pregnancy
inthe United States. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/
Health Research Funding. (2014, October 13). 20 abstinence only sex
education statistics. Retrieved from
healthresearchfunding.org/20-abstinence-sex-education-statistics/
Szumilas M. Explaining Odds
Ratios.Journal of the
Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2010;19(3):227-229.
Retrieved from.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938757/”>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2938757/