In Simple Words
Providing safety information and protective tools acts like giving drivers seatbelts and driving lessons—it equips adolescents to manage health risks when they choose to act, rather than encouraging them to drive recklessly or start driving sooner.
Ninth-grade pupils in Colombian public schools
- Usual sexual education
- Group used for comparison
- Online Profamilia course
- No clear increase in sexual activity
Six-month self-reports. Estimates remain uncertain; no clear increase is not proof that every behavioral effect is zero.
See source →Research question
Policy makers and educators frequently fear that providing adolescents with comprehensive sexual health education and contraceptive access will inadvertently encourage or accelerate sexual activity.
Participants
N = 4,364 human ninth-grade public school students surveyed at 6-month follow-up across 21 Colombian cities.
Study Design
Classroom-level Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) measuring self-reported sexual activity, sexual frequency, and number of partners six months post-intervention.
Results
Treatment students showed no statistically significant differences in sexual initiation (-0.003, p > 0.10), sexual frequency (0.212, p > 0.10), or partner count (-0.009, p > 0.10) compared to control groups, despite a 55% increase in condom voucher redemptions.
Takeaway
Implement comprehensive sexual education and condom access programs without fear of increasing adolescent sexual activity rates.
Source and citation
See source →Read alongside the research
Plain-English glossary
Original explanations, informed by the references below. Examples are illustrations, not data from the studies above. The research text stays unchanged.
- Follow-up
Collecting more information about participants later in a study to see what has happened to them. The term can also mean the length of time researchers keep track of them.
ExampleResearchers interview the same workers three months after a programme ends. That later interview is a follow-up.
GET-IT glossary · Follow-up ↗Read more about follow-up →- Randomized controlled trial
A study that uses chance, like drawing lots, to decide who receives each option being compared. Researchers compare the groups’ outcomes to estimate the effect of those options.
ExampleA lottery assigns volunteers to a training programme or a comparison group. Researchers then compare their outcomes.
GET-IT glossary · Randomized study ↗Read more about randomized controlled trial →- Statistically significant
A label used when a result passes a chosen statistical threshold, often p < 0.05. It does not show how large or useful an effect is. A result that is not statistically significant does not prove there is no effect.
ExampleA study reports p = 0.03 against a 0.05 threshold. It passes that test, but the effect could still be too small to matter.
American Statistical Association · Statement on p-values ↗Read more about statistically significant →