Work

Funding for Abstinence-Only Education and Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention: Does State Ideology Affect Outcomes?

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between adolescent pregnancy-prevention and sexuality and abstinence-only education funding and adolescent birthrates over time. Also, to determine whether state ideology plays a moderating role on adolescent reproductive health, that is, whether the funding has its intended effect at reducing the number of adolescent births in conservative but not in liberal states. METHODS: We modeled time-series data on federal abstinence-only and adolescent pregnancy-prevention and sexuality education block grants to US states and rates of adolescent births (1998-2016) and adjusted for state-level confounders using 2-way fixed-effects models. RESULTS: Federal abstinence-only funding had no effect on adolescent birthrates overall but displayed a perverse effect, increasing adolescent birthrates in conservative states. Adolescent pregnancy-prevention and sexuality education funding eclipsed this effect, reducing adolescent birthrates in those states. CONCLUSIONS: The millions of dollars spent on abstinence-only education has had no effect on adolescent birthrates, although conservative states, which experience the greatest burden of adolescent births, are the most responsive to changes in sexuality education-funding streams.

Source: American Journal of Public Health

DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2018.304896

Authors: Ashley M. Fox, Georgia Himmelstein, Hina Khalid, Elizabeth A. Howell

Institutions: Information Technology University, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Award: G3513152605