A statewide survey found that 89 percent of California parents - regardless of politics, religion, location, or educational level - want comprehensive sex education taught in schools. A poll by the Bay Area's Public Health Institute, funded by the California Wellness Foundation, found that parents support a sex education program that includes information about contraception, protection from STDs, and information about abstinence.
Widespread support for such a curriculum crossed cultural divides. Eighty-six percent of evangelical Christians said they support comprehensive sex education. The "very conservative" gave it the lowest support, at 71 percent.
California has rejected federal funding for abstinence-only sex education for the past decade in favor of a state-funded comprehensive sex education curriculum that includes abstinence. However, the report noted that many school districts are failing to provide sex education as required by state law.
Norman A. Constantine of the Public Health Institute in Oakland and researchers conducted a telephone survey - in English and Spanish - of 1,284 parents across California in the spring and summer of 2006. The results of the survey and study will appear in the September issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Teaching young students about sex can help stem the growth of STDs, said Constantine. He noted that local school districts need to know that not only the law supports comprehensive sex education, but parents support it as well.
A nine-year, federally funded study released in April found that combination approaches to sex education such as California's are more effective than abstinence-only approaches.
San Jose Mercury News (05.23.07):: Jessie Mangaliman
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