In a scientific review of the best available studies, a team of McMaster researchers has demonstrated that adolescent pregnancy prevention programs fail to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse, improve use of birth control, or reduce pregnancy rates.

“The studies we summarized were all randomized trials,the highest quality evidence, ” said Alba DiCenso, who led the research team. “The prevention strategies evaluated in these studies – sex education, abstinence programs, family planning clinics, and community based programs – did not achieve their intended effect.”

The situation is even worse for abstinence programs. “Not only do abstinence programs not delay initiation of sexual intercourse or reduce pregnancy rates,” continued DiCenso “but an analysis of five studies, four of which evaluated abstinence programs and one of which evaluated a school-based sex education program, was associated with an increase in the number of pregnancies among partners of young males.”

The good news from the study comes from the finding that, contrary to the claims of sex education critics and advocates of abstinence programs, sex education programs did not result in higher rates of sexual intercourse.

The results leave a big, unsolved problem. Pregnancy rates among young women aged 15 to 19 years, are among the highest in the world in the United States (93 per 1,000 young women), England (61 per 1,000), and Canada (43 per 1,000).

“We need more work in designing pregnancy prevention programs that are effective in delaying intercourse, improving birth control use and reducing pregnancy rates,” concluded DiCenso. None of the studies included in the review evaluated programs that had been designed with the input of adolescents, involved parents, ensured that the delivery of accurate information was paired with ready access to birth control methods, or included regular 'booster' sessions to review and reinforce the learning. “Careful work needs to be done to design and rigorously evaluate new approaches to adolescent pregnancy prevention.”