The evidence says otherwise, however. According to a review commissioned by the World Health Organization, there is no support for the contention that sex education encourages sexual experimentation or increased activity (181). After analyzing more than 1,000 reports on sex education programs worldwide, the authors concluded that sex education courses did not lead to earlier sexual intercourse, and in some cases they delayed it.

Delay in initial sexual intercourse. School programs can give young people the skills they need to postpone having sex for the first time (36, 181). Among US secondary-school students who took the 15-hour course called "Reducing the Risk," only 29% of the treatment group had initiated intercourse 18 months after completing the course compared with 38% of the comparison group of students who had not taken the course (260) (see Table 10). The course helped students practice saying "no" to unwanted sex (see Program design and methods in Chapter 4.2).

A second US program, "Postponing Sexual Involvement," delayed intercourse among 13- to 14-year-old boys and girls (216) (see Table 10). After the program started in 1983, students were questioned about their needs. Some 84% of girls wanted to know "how to say 'no' without hurting the other person's feelings" (216). The program was adapted to meet this need, and now older teens teach a curriculum that helps young people resist peer pressure and provides information on human sexuality and contraception. Studies of other sexuality information programs, in Mexico and the US, report that graduates do not start sex any earlier than other young people (115, 264, 378).

No increase in sexual intercourse. In Australia, Switzerland, Thailand, and the US, evaluations have found that programs to inform sexually active young adults about contraceptives did not increase coital frequency or number of sexualpartners (181, 196) (see Table 10). Also, providing reproductive health services in or near schools did not increase sexual activity and in fact delayed sexual initiation in some cases (264, 266, 564).

Increase in the use of contraceptives. Most programs have not increased use of contraceptives, but a few have been able to do so. A Swiss study found that regular condom use among young people increased after an AIDS information campaign using school presentations, telephone hotlines, a computer network, and exhibits at village festivals, but only after the first time the young people had intercourse with a new partner. Among young women, regular users of condoms increased from 71% to 77%, and among young men, from 38% to 54% (196). Several FLE programs have found that, if they reached young people before they first had sex, they increased contraceptive use once young adults did start sex. For example, among 1,632 sexually inexperienced youth in Mexico, 82% of girls and 55% of boys who took an FLE course used contraceptives when they began to have sexual intercourse compared with 75% of girls and 32% of boys who did not take the course (379). In this Mexican study and two US studies, however, FLE did not affect contraceptive use among students who were already sexually active when they took the course (215, 260, 378, 379).