Absence of Behavioral Licensing in Sexual Health Education
RCTClinical Trial
Policy makers and educators frequently fear that providing adolescents with comprehensive sexual health education and contraceptive access will inadvertently encourage or accelerate sexual activity.
Picture this
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.
What the evidence says
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.
- Who was studied
- N = 4,364 human ninth-grade public school students surveyed at 6-month follow-up across 21 Colombian cities.
- How
- Classroom-level Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) measuring self-reported sexual activity, sexual frequency, and number of partners six months post-intervention.
What to do
Implement comprehensive sexual education and condom access programs without fear of increasing adolescent sexual activity rates.
From the source
"The data do not provide evidence that the online course increased sexual activity, which together with the increased condom demand result suggests that the course results in improved sexual practice or at least safe-sex preparedness."
Do Information Technologies Improve Teenagers’ Sexual Education? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Colombia