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Sex education in the United States is taught in two main forms: comprehensive and abstinence-only. Comprehensive sex education covers abstinence as a choice option, but also informs adolescents about the availability of contraception and techniques to avoid contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. Abstinence-only sex education emphasizes abstinence from sexual activity prior to marriage and rejects methods such as contraception. The difference between the two approaches, and their impact on the behavior of adolescents, remains a controversial subject in the United States. ==Current position== Most adolescents in the United States receive some form of sex education at school at least once between grades 6 and 12; many schools begin addressing some topics as early as grades 4 or 5. Academic and other proponents of the National Sexuality Education Standards advocate that by the end of the fifth grade, students should be able to "Define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender."〔Future of Sex Education report: ("National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12" )〕 However, what students learn varies widely, because curriculum decisions are so decentralized. Many states have laws governing what is taught in sex education classes or allowing parents to opt out. Some state laws leave curriculum decisions to individual school districts. For example, a 1999 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that most U.S. sex education courses in grades 6 through 12 cover puberty, HIV, STDs, abstinence, implications of teenage pregnancy, and how to resist peer pressure. Other studied topics, such as methods of birth control and infection prevention, sexual orientation, sexual abuse, and factual and ethical information about abortion, varied more widely.〔 See especially Table 3.〕 There have been numerous studies on the effectiveness of both approaches, and conflicting data on American public opinion. Public opinion polls conducted over the years have found that the majority of Americans favor broader sex education programs over those that teach only abstinence, although abstinence educators recently published poll data with the opposite conclusion. The poll sponsored by the National Abstinence Education Association and conducted by Zogby International reported information that has not been replicated in methodologically sound surveys. Experts at University of California, San Francisco also encourage sex educators to include oral sex and emotional concerns as part of their curriculum. Their findings also support earlier studies that conclude: ...that sexual risk-taking should be considered from a dynamic relationship perspective, rather than solely from a traditional disease-model perspective. Prevention programs rarely discuss adolescents’ social and emotional concerns regarding sex....Discussion about potential negative consequences, such as experiencing guilt or feeling used by one's partner, may lead some adolescents to delay the onset of sexual behavior until they feel more sure of the strength of their relationship with a partner and more comfortable with the idea of becoming sexually active. Identification of common negative social and emotional consequences of having sex may also be useful in screening for adolescents at risk of experiencing more-serious adverse outcomes after having sex. However, according to a 2004 NPR survey, a majority of the 1001 parent groups polled wanted complete sex education in the schools. Respondents were relatively undivided over the issue. Over 80% of polled parents agreed with the statement "Sex education in school makes it easier for me to talk to my child about sexual issues", and under 17% agreed with the statement that their children were being exposed to "subjects I don't think my child should be discussing". Additionally 90% believed that their children’s sexual education was “not too early”. The study also reports that 49% of the respondents were "somewhat confident" that the values taught in their children's sexual education classes were similar to those taught at home, and 23% were somewhat less confident. 〔(Sex Education in America - General Public/Parents Survey ). NPR/Kaiser/Harvard survey (2004). URL accessed on June 17, 2005.〕 On September 15, 2010, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC) released a government report that found that "almost all U.S. teens have had formal sex education, but only about two-thirds have been taught about birth control methods." Many teenagers are reportedly not absorbing the sex education lessons. The report from CDC is based on face-to-face interviews with nearly 2,800 teenagers in their homes from 2006 through 2008.〔(【引用サイトリンク】CDC: One-third of sex ed omits birth control )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sex education in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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