the children of the US? is the first step in finding a solution to this problem.
             Current sex education programs in schools do not prevent sexual behavior, STD's and pregnancy in teens. The independent variable that is being looked at is participation in sex education programs and the dependent variables are participation in sexual behavior, contraction of STD's, and premarital pregnancy.
             An analytical look will be taken at the current sex education young people are receiving in schools to determine why the programs do not work and what needs to be changed so that they will. This will be decided by looking at preexisting studies and archival sources to learn which programs work and why. In addition a cross tabulation and frequency distribution of adults' opinion about sex education's place in public schools will be studied.
             Written in the Journal of School Health was a review and critique, authored by Cecilia Jacobs and Eve Wolf, on the research that has been done on measuring the effectiveness of school sex education programs and the risk taking behaviors of adolescents. This is an important area to study because without reliable methods for testing the effectiveness of sex education programs it is impossible to know which programs produce the best results. The authors qualify sex education as formal comprehensive school courses that deal with human sexuality in the broadest sense, as opposed to courses that last only a few days and deal with only one or two topics. "The term sexual risk taking behavior refers to any sexual behavior that puts health or well being at risk by inducing unwanted pregnancy or contraction of an STD" (1995). In addition to problems that are common in the studies the authors discuss effectiveness of the programs, and finally suggestions for future research are made.
             In their examination of the literature that measures the effects of school sex education on student'...