Using Science to Improve the Sexual Health of America's Youth

For decades, sexuality education policies and practices in the U.S. have been a mixture of science, morality, politics, and the personal opinions of key decision makers. Far too often, science has fared dismally when policy, practice, and curriculum decisions were made in state legislatures and local school board meetings. The new research focusing on the meta-analyses of group-based comprehensive risk reduction and abstinence education interventions is one additional tool in the toolkit of those who want to use science, not ideology, to address the sexual risk-taking of America's youth. [Copyright American Journal of Preventive Medicine; published by Elsevier Inc.]