Family

Youth

Future

Bulletin 106: Winter 2001/2002

In this issue:

Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles
Love Says ‘Wait’
Children In Need
Annual Conference
Abstinence Education Rejected by the Sex Education Forum
News in Brief
New Factsheets


Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles

Towards the end of the 1980s, when AIDS was being presented as a major public health issue, the Health Education Authority (which no longer exists) proposed a major survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles. When Mrs Thatcher discovered the explicit and intrusive nature of the questions she pulled the plug on it, but funding was subsequently provided by the Wellcome Trust, and the findings were published as Sexual Behaviour In Britain by Penguin Books in 1994. Between 1999 – 2001 a team of researchers conducted a second phase of the survey, and their findings have been published in three articles in the Lancet of 1 December 2001 (vol. 358).

AIDS is now less of an issue, and has been replaced on the policy agenda by teenage pregnancy. This country has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe and the government is committed to reducing it. The most important of these three articles, therefore, is the second one, entitled ‘Early Heterosexual Experience’, which addresses these concerns and comments on suitable policy responses.

The gist of it is that age at first intercourse was falling throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, but then levelled off. Young people have become more ‘responsible’, in that they are more likely to be using contraception, especially condoms. Young people whose main source of information about sex was school sex education are the most ‘responsible’ and well adjusted group, compared with those who gave parents or friends as their main source. The whole thrust of the article is immensely encouraging to the government, which, according to this analysis, is doing everything right. The most important predictor of early motherhood is given as the educational level of the teenage girl. As the government controls education (or thinks it does) ‘the factors most strongly associated with risk behaviour and adverse outcomes have considerable potential for preventive intervention’.

Lurking in all these columns of figures is the uncomfortable fact of family structure. Children brought up by two parents are shown to be less likely to have become sexually active before 16 (by over 50{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6}). Even amongst those who had their sexual initiation before 18, family structure made a significant difference. The children of two-parent families were less likely to have become mothers, to have had an abortion, or to have had a sexually transmitted infection. However, the government has shown no willingness to address this part of the question – hence, no doubt, the concern to identify education as the key. But this ignores the extent to which educational level and family structure are linked. Anyone who thinks that standards in education can be raised irrespective of the home backgrounds of pupils obviously hasn’t been in a school lately. Unless the government’s teenage pregnancy strategy is prepared to take family structure on board, the ‘potential for preventive intervention’ may be less than the authors of this study seem to think.

The first and longest of the Lancet articles gives an overview of the new survey and makes comparisons with that of ten years ago. The situation, broadly, is that things are on the slide. People are having more sexual partners, often more than one at a time, more heterosexual anal intercourse and there is more use of prostitutes. ‘For many of these variables, the magnitude of the observed changes is large’. Condom use is up, but so is the number of sexual partners, so from a public health perspective there is no gain.

People were asked how many sexual partners they had had, in the last five years and over their lifetime. The majority of respondents (51{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} of men, 62{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} of women) had had either one partner or none in the last five years. Much was made in the media coverage of the proportion who had admitted to ten or more in a lifetime – 34{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} of men and 19{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} of women. However, the figures for the last five years make interesting reading. People admitting to ten or more partners were outnumbered by those who had had no partner at all. Put together with previously published statistics showing the low rates of marriage, the large numbers of young women who will never have a child, and the extremely high percentage – over 30{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} – of households consisting of one person, these figures bring home to us the fact that, for many people, the breakdown of the family brought about by the sexual revolution has resulted in lives characterised by loneliness and sterility.

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Love Says ‘Wait’

In Cornwall County Council last May, Cllr Mrs Armorel Carlyon opposed the adoption of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, the same essentially as that being ordered from London via the Teenage Pregnancy Unit for local authorities all over England. She was narrowly defeated by 28 votes to 24. Further consultation was promised.

On November 30 there were two conferences in Truro. The first, at County Hall, was by invitation of the County Council’s Social Services Department and was attended by head teachers, county councillors, county youth service workers and invited speakers. The press and general public were not invited. Speakers included the organisers of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy at regional and county level, advocating tolerance and inclusion, and a member of the Youth Forum, the bottom line of whose exposition was ‘teenagers have sex’.

The speakers invited at the request of Cllr Carlyon (also Chairman of Cornwall’s Community Standards Association [CSA]) then expressed their views. Dr John Guly described the painful and often incurable physical and emotional consequences to health and happiness of sexual experimentation by the young. He concluded by saying: ‘Behavioural change is essential for the sexual health of our youth and nation. We must take heed and learn from the sexual health and abstinence programmes in the USA.’ Mrs Valerie Riches outlined the history of the sexual revolution and the rise of the International Planned Parenthood Federation with its campaign to promote contraceptives in sex education. Mrs Lynette Burrows emphasised the association of sex educators with the children’s rights movement and with commercial interests and compared it with putting the tobacco industry in charge of a no-smoking campaign.

Mr Nick Pollard described the sense of unreality which had assailed him as he read the Cornwall Teenage Pregnancy Strategy and sex education material being distributed in Cornwall. ‘They are not being told the truth,’ he said. He held up an FPA booklet for teenagers. The first page intimated that the reader would, amongst other options, be told how she could say ‘no’. A careful reading from then on made no further reference to this, but provided great detail on the use of contraceptives. ‘How can we support and encourage the two-thirds of teenagers who are not sexually active?’ he asked. He challenged those in the Council Chamber: ‘If I were in your shoes, I would be saying we must have an alternative that gives equal air time to the abstinence message, that it is possible to wait to have sex until you are in a totally committed relationship.’

In the evening, the entire programme of Mrs Carlyon’s four distinguished speakers was valiantly repeated, this time in the packed main hall of Richard Lander School, Truro, at the Love Says ‘Wait’ conference, sponsored jointly by CSA and Family Education Trust. They were joined by the Challenge Team from Ottawa, who had been visiting schools in Great Britain with their abstinence programme. ‘Twelve ways of “saying no”‘ was sincere, vigorous and funny. Challenge Teams, each composed of two young men and two young women, expect to be back in Britain in 2002. Secondary school head teachers and governors all over the country should be urged to invite them. Every county in Great Britain should train up its own Challenge Team.

FET members can obtain the two audio cassettes of the evening free of charge from: Reach-Out Recordings, 35 Treloweth Way, Pool, Redruth, Cornwall TR15 3TT. A contribution towards postage and packing, and possibly a donation, are appreciated but not asked for by Reach-Out Recordings.

Conferences on the lines of Love Says ‘Wait’ need urgently to be arranged nationwide.

Ann Whitaker

 

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Children In Need

Prior to last November’s Children In Need (CIN) appeal we were contacted by several members who were concerned about the fact that, in the past, CIN had been found to be making grants to controversial organisations like the Brook Advisory Centres and the Children’s Legal Centre. However, as CIN has never published a comprehensive list of its beneficiaries, it is difficult for members of the public to establish where the money is going. In response to enquiries by ourselves, CIN supplied by e-mail a list of last year’s beneficiaries, which included the Leicester Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Centre (£6,433), but not Brook or CLC. The majority of the grants were to uncontroversial bodies. In future, the recipients of each year’s appeal will be published on the CIN website http://www.bbc.co.uk/cin

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Annual Conference

The annual conference and AGM of the society will be held on Saturday 15 June at the Royal Air Force Club in Piccadilly. We are delighted to be able to announce that we will be addressed this year by Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics, and by Dr Joost Van Loon of the Nottingham Trent University. Dr Hakim will be speaking on ‘Models of the Family in the 21st Century’, drawing on her recent book Work-lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century, published by Oxford University Press. Dr Van Loon will be speaking of his new research, carried out on our behalf, into the nature of sex education in the Netherlands. This promises to be a rewarding day – put the date in your diaries now!

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Abstinence Education Rejected by the Sex Education Forum

Most reasonable people can agree that delaying sexual activity is a healthy choice for teenagers. Even teens themselves, when time is taken to discuss the issue, find many reasons why abstaining is smart. So, it’s not such a radical idea, and is, indeed, included in the Department for Education’s guidelines on sex and relationship education. Many people believe that teaching children details about contraceptives and safer sex techniques has had ample testing and has proved itself to be an inadequate response to the high levels of teenage pregnancy and STIs in the UK. A growing number of parents and educators have suggested that we look to the United States to see how they have addressed the problem there. Specifically, the abstinence education movement, which is growing in popularity and prominence in the US, is offered as a possible guide for sex and relationship education in the UK.

The possibility that abstinence education might be introduced into the UK has caused concern amongst the promoters of contraceptive education, and the Sex Education Forum’s recent report, Just Say No…To Abstinence Education gives some indication of the profound hostility towards it which exists in these circles. The authors spoke with sixteen individuals or organisations interested in sex education in the US, of which only three could be described as advocates of abstinence-only education. They lump together many programmes of varied quality and focus on the weakest as if they represent the lot. They speak constantly of ‘the evidence base of SRE [sex and relationships education]’ and the need to rely on ‘evidence of what works’, as if sex education in this country were conducted on this basis. In fact, as we were able to demonstrate in our study Tried But Untested, there is no UK research, and very little world-wide, which gives any grounds for believing that contraceptive education reduces teen pregnancy and the incidence of sexually transmitted infections. The sex education lobbyists have shown little interest in research, until now, when abstinence education is being mooted, and they suddenly demand watertight evidence that it is effective.

In the United States the term ‘abstinence education’ comprises a broad range of programmes, some of which are very good, and some not so good. The best programmes are not the ones that tell children to ‘just say no’. Instead, the best programmes are embedded within a larger concern for children’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. They provide accurate information about the risks involved in sexual activity, including the risks associated with contraception and safer sex techniques. Contrary to what the Sex Education Forum has reported, many abstinence programmes do teach negotiation skills, and they do call upon teens to think through the issue for themselves. Most importantly, the best abstinence education programmes focus on how to develop self-esteem, self-respect and respect for others.

Should the UK adopt wholesale the abstinence programmes used in the United States? Probably not. Much of the support for abstinence programmes in the US has come from faith-based charities and the high percentage of Americans who are actively involved in organised religion-a source of support that is less prevalent in the UK. Likewise, the term ‘abstinence’ might enjoy significant acceptance in the US, but the average Brit is likely to dismiss the whole concept as silly or out of date. The possibility of British teens signing public ‘abstinence pledges’ seems remote. These and other cultural differences would require us to substantially adapt any teaching resources from America.

However, there are no grounds for the patronising attitude which the authors of Just Say No…To Abstinence Education adopt towards the USA. Teenage pregnancy rates there declined by 19{8280f91348e3f29ebed1ce3c892ba98723ca403e09ee85e84c65855822b2f2c6} between 1991 and 1997, so they must be doing something right. The grounds on which the Americans are mocked are, however, highly revealing of the priorities of the Sex Education Forum:

‘In England a culture is developing at both national and local levels of ensuring that the views and ideas of children and young people influence both policy and practice. While there is much work still to be done in England, it is clear that there is much to be congratulated (sic). Rarely in the US does it appear that children and young people get an opportunity to express their views to influence either policy or practice (p.45).’

Perhaps that is why the Americans have been successful at reducing their teenage pregnancy rate and we haven’t. As one would expect, the authors of this report are wholly supportive of the government’s Teenage Pregnancy Unit, which they feel (without supplying any evidence) is making good progress. Those of us who have been reading through the teenage pregnancy strategies which have been produced by local authorities have noticed the virtually complete absence of any reference to abstinence education. The ideological hostility to it is profound, and has nothing to do with the ‘evidence base’.

The authors complain that: ‘As in England, too often the voice of an unrepresentative group of parents is heard. The difference [between the USA and the UK] is that although the minority view may be over-represented within some parts of the media, in England, the Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy is based on a thorough analysis of teenage pregnancy and parenthood undertaken by the Social Exclusion Unit’ (p.47). The ideological bias which was fairly evident in the SEU report has been magnified in the Teenage Pregnancy Unit, which actually has a link through to the Brook Advisory Centres on its website. There is certainly an ‘unrepresentative group’ controlling sex education policy in the UK, but it isn’t the advocates of abstinence!

For more information about abstinence education, check FET’s web site or contact the office.

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News in Brief

 

  • Member Ann Farmer complained about an issue of the men’s magazine GQ, which had a particularly explicit cover, and which was on sale at her local Waitrose. As a result, the edition was withdrawn from all Waitrose branches.
  • ‘Making Sense of Censorship’ by our chairman Arthur Cornell, which appeared in Family Bulletin 102, has been included in the A-level students project book series Issues, No. 27, The Censorship Issue, published by Independence Educational Publishers (website: http://www.independence.co.uk).
  • In its Autumn newsletter the Scottish Friendly Society offers advice on how to arrange for a comfortable retirement. One of the ‘Don’ts’ is: ‘Don’t suffer a mid-life crisis and get divorced. Both partners usually end up worse off after a divorce. Now there is “pension sharing” a husband, typically the one with the better retirement provision, stands to lose up to half his pension. The wife gains a pension, but she will have the extra expense of running a home on her own.’ At last, the message is getting through!
  • In its Annual Report for 2001 the Brook Advisory Centres describes its mission as: ‘Equipping young people to enjoy their sexuality without harm… and influencing public policy to create a healthy environment for young people to explore their sexuality positively’. A Brook ‘outreach worker’ describes a typical day: ‘I go to youth clubs with my models of sexual organs and set up a stall. People will come up and talk to me.’ Another member of staff describes her work with looked-after children: ‘We build genitalia with fruit and veg: lychees make very good testicles.’ Although Brook now claims to ‘address the totality of young people’s lives’, it sounds as if the focus is still very much below the belt.

 

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New Factsheets

 

Factsheet 1: Young People and The Morning-after Pill

Our factsheet on the implications of providing the morning-after pill to teenagers has now been sent to all heads of secondary schools in the UK, as well as PSHE advisers, and directors of education in Scotland. Many thanks to all those of you who generously contributed to our New Year appeal to make this possible. Further copies can be obtained from the office, or downloaded free from the website https://familyeducationtrust.org.uk

Factsheet 2: How Do Fathers Fit In?

Civitas has recently published a factsheet for use in secondary schools which reviews the evidence showing the beneficial effects for children of involvement with their fathers. Members wishing to obtain a copy should send two second-class stamps to the office. Alternatively, it can be downloaded free from http://www.civitas.org.uk

E-mail Addresses

We are constantly producing material which we would like to be able to share with members as quickly as possible, without always waiting for the next edition of Family Bulletin. If you have e-mail and would like to be kept in touch, please send your e-mail address to us at fyc@ukfamily.org.uk

And Finally . . .

“I was ever of the opinion that the honest man who married and brought up a large family did more service than he who continued single and only talked of population.”

Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766

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