Reactions to the Mathematica Study
by Communications
[4.16.2007]
The Mathematica study out, opinions rain in.
On Friday, the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released the results of a study, recently completed. The study, conducted over a period of 10 years and costing some $6 million in taxpayer dollars, seems to indicate the failings of abstinence-until-marriage education. Most media outlets are jumping on the "down with abstinence" bandwagon, smugly affirming that they've been right all along.
Many of those happy with the apparent findings are those you would expect.
SIECUS is busy writing off all contrary analysis as right-wing denial. Planned Parenthood is
sticking to the usual talking points. "This study should leave no doubt as to the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education," said Lisa Boyce, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
However, little has been mentioned on any contrary data. While these are the results of one study, there have been over 30 studies nationwide studying various programs, and producing very different results. What's more, there are questions concerning the validity of Mathematica's study itself. Problems include (
as reported by Project Reality),
# Studying children as young as 3rd grade – not the average age for abstinence programs and/or sexual activity
# Researching merely four programs - a very small sample of the 900 federally funded abstinence education programs
# Choosing control groups from the same schools as the program intervention students. This carries a high likelihood of contamination between the control group and the intervention group
# The number of students studied – 1,209 in the program and 848 in the control group – a very small sample size for spending more than six million dollars.
It seems as though supporters of the results of this study aren't supporting it for the flawed science behind them, but for the ideologies they may support.
