A REVIEW OF ARIZONA HIGH SCHOOL SEXUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS AND THEIR CORRELATION TO TEEN HEALTH OUTCOMES

Abstract

Arizona has over 5,000 teen pregnancies a year, ranking it 18th on a national level for highest teenage birth rate. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, over half of all Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) cases in Arizona are diagnosed in young adults. Arizona has no state-mandated sexual education programs in public schools; in fact, the Arizona state law regarding sexual education has not been updated in over 30 years. This project contains information regarding the sexual education programs collected from the two largest school districts in each Arizona county, and correlates the program type with county-wide teen pregnancy and STD statistics. It was found that school districts that provided sexual education programs – Abstinence Only and Abstinence Plus – were correlated with lower teen pregnancy rates; the correlation between teen STD rate and district sexual education program is unclear. This thesis also contains the recommendation of a number of health organizations that endorse state-wide comprehensive sex education, citing reduced rates of sexual activity and sexual risk behaviors. A social media account was created to provide information about sexual health to students, and has had over 400 online interactions on Instagram.