Therapist Unlimited Blog

An intensified teen drug education is also an effective tool to prevent risky sex among teenagers around the world.

Hitting two birds in one stone.
This was uncovered by researchers who found out that an aggressive teen drug education is also an effective tool to beat our risky sex among the young generation.
According to a report published in the online health magazine site Journal of Adolescent Health, young adults who had been exposed to a popular drug abuse prevention program as adolescents were less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour five to seven years later.
The researchers said the result of their study has proved that an intensified drug abuse prevention program can help reduce risky sexual practices among young adults.
The Rand Corporation who conducted the study explained teenagers who have undergone a drug prevention training are more likely avoid engaging in sex with multiple partners or perform sex or do unprotective sex.
The result of the study was based on the research conducted on 1,901 unmarried 21-year-olds who took part in a randomized controlled trial of Project ALERT, a drug use prevention program for middle school students developed by Rand Corporation.
The Rand Corporation revealed the study participants were exposed to Project ALERT while they attended middle school in South Dakota.
Among the participants, 631 attended schools that received 14 Project ALERT lessons during middle school, 499 attended schools that received 10 additional lessons during high school and 771 attended schools that did not offer the Project ALERT program.
It was discovered that Young adults exposed to Project ALERT were both less likely to have sex with multiple partners (44 percent versus 50 percent) and to have unprotected sex because of drug use (27 percent versus 32 percent) than their peers who had not been exposed to the program.
About 71 percent of study participants reported inconsistent use of condoms, regardless of whether they had been exposed to Project ALERT.
Furthermore, the researchers say that part of the differences between the two groups may be due to the lower use of drugs and alcohol among those exposed to Project ALERT since the behavior is linked to risky sexual practices. However, the differences in sexual behaviour between the two groups were not entirely explained by the lower substance use levels.
The result of this study should push the national government of any nation around the world to intensify further their anti-drug prevention campaign so also avoid risky sexual behaviours among the young generation.