According to the findings of a new study, led by the University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. John B. Jemmott III, abstinence-only sex education can go a long way in delaying their sexual initiation, if it is based on time-honored strategies that help young people change their mind-set about other precarious activities like smoking and drinking.

The study made 662 African-American sixth- and seventh-grade students complete an eight-hour program, comprising a series of brief activities and games. The participants were paid $20 per session for attending the abstinence-only classes, which covered HIV, abstinence, and ways to resist the pressure to indulge in sexual activity; as well as follow-up and evaluation sessions.

The researchers found that one-third of the study-participants attending abstinence-only classes had a lesser likelihood of initiating sex in the next couple of years, vis-à-vis 50 percent of their peers who attended a similar program pertaining to health issues that were not linked to sex.

It was also observed that nearly 42 percent of the students who were assigned to comprehensive sex-education classes, covering information about both safer sex and abstinence, began having sex during the two-year period.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Jemmott said: "Because African-Americans tend to have a higher rate of early sexual initiation than others, we thought that within two years, a reasonable number would start having sex. If we went younger, we couldn't show that intervention works."