Online-only: Majority of teens receive formal sex education, but some topics lacking
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* Donya Currie

Most U.S. teens receive formal sex education before they reach age 18, but such education may be lacking in such areas as birth control.

Data from the National Survey of Family Growth, which were released in September, found that 96 percent of female teens and 97 percent of male teens received formal sex education before they were 18. Female teens were more likely than male teens to report first receiving instruction on birth control methods in high school — 47 percent compared to 38 percent. And younger female teenagers were more likely than younger male teenagers to have talked to their parents about sex and birth control.

Using data from the 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth, the report looked at the percentage of male and female teens ages 15–19 who received any sex education. Teenagers were asked if they received formal instruction on four topics of sex education at school, church, a community center or some other place before they turned 18, and they were asked what grade they were in when the sex education occurred.

The teen participants in the survey also were asked if they talked to their parents before age 18 about topics concerning sex, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS prevention. Overall, 92 percent of male teens and 93 percent of female teens reported being taught about sexually transmitted infections. Only 62 percent of male teenagers reported receiving instructions on birth control methods, compared with 70 percent of female teenagers.

The majority of teens surveyed reported receiving formal sex education on “how to say no to sex,” on sexually transmitted diseases or on how to prevent HIV/AIDS when in middle school or grades 6–8. Teens who reported first receiving sex education before middle school were more likely to say they had instruction on “how to say no to sex” than other topics. About one in five teens said they first received instruction on “how to say no to sex” while in first through fifth grade.

When it came to talking to their parents about saying no to sex, nearly two out of three female teenagers had done so, compared with about two out of five male teenagers. While 80 percent of 15–17-year-old girls had talked with a parent about at least one of the four sex education topics, just 68 percent of boys in that age group had done so. Yet by the time teens reach 18 and 19, there is no difference between males and females in whether they talk to their parents about sex.

Previous studies have shown formal sex education can be effective at reducing risk behaviors among teens, and parental communication about sex with their teenagers is linked to delayed initiation of sex and increased use of birth control methods and condoms among sexually experienced teens. According to the report, there was little change since 2002 in receipt of formal sex education or information from parents among U.S. teenagers.

The full report, “Educating Teenagers About Sex in the United States,” was published as National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief no. 44 and is available at [www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db44.pdf](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db44.pdf). Data from the National Survey on Family Growth are available at [www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg.htm).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association