Can sex education lead to less sex?

Educating young people about sex and sexual choices from an early age has been accused of causing promiscuity and premature sexual behaviour, but the evidence is at least as strong that the opposite is the case.

One country whose low abortion and teenage pregnancy rates have been cited as proof that comprehensive sex education works is the Netherlands.

Following the announcement in 2008 that the then UK schools minister, Jim Knight, planned to “introduce sex lessons for five-year-olds”,¹ The Times explored the situation in the Netherlands, which has comprehensive sex education, the lowest rate of sexually transmitted infections in young people in Europe, a similarly low rate of teenage pregnancy (five times lower than that of the UK), and one of the lowest abortion rates in Europe.

A series of books by the psychologist Sanderijn van der Doef (see www.sanderijnvanderdoef.nl) provides Dutch children with comprehensive sex education and advice, starting with I do love you, a book for children aged three to six that relates children’s needs for love and closeness to adult sexuality to help children link concepts like reproduction, sex and love. Her latest book, Out, is a book educating children about homosexuality. “Here sex is a normal daily part of life, like shopping or football,” she told The Times.

In the Netherlands at least, this culture of openness seems to go alongside a culture of reduced sexual health risk. In Britain, the average teenager starts having sex at 16 - more than a year before the Dutch average of 17.7 years. About 93% of young people in the Netherlands use contraception, compared with 53% in Britain. A study of teenagers in both countries found that, while boys and girls in the Netherlands gave “love and commitment” as the main reason for losing their virginity, boys in Britain cited peer pressure and physical attraction.

It is worth asking, however, whether these differences in teenage sexual behaviour are due to the Netherlands’ approach to sex and relationship education or whether they are due to deeper cultural and social differences. Dutch children are five times less likely to be living in a family headed by a lone parent, divorce rates are far lower and fewer mothers are in full-time employment. Parents are more likely to be physically present every evening to discuss issues with their children. Teenage pregnancy is still heavily stigmatised and until 2002 single mothers under 18 were given no financial support by the government.

Dutch children are also taught that getting pregnant in their teens is a barrier to success. “I'm not prepared to risk messing up my life. I am strong enough to wait,” Ruby, 12, told The Times. “I want to be 19 and in love before I have sex,” said her friend Grace.