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Theism, Secularism, and Sexual Education in the United States

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Abstract

Substantial bodies of literature have examined public opinion about sexual education, the politicization of sexual education in public schools, and connections between population characteristics and social policies. At present, however, little is known about whether and how population characteristics predict the likelihood of specific sexual education policies. We analyze data at the state level in the USA to determine if and how specific religious aspects of states’ populations influence the likelihood of specific sexual education policies. Results indicate that high levels of theism significantly increase the likelihood of sexual education policies stressing abstinence, while higher levels of individuals not actively participating in organized religion correlate with a significantly higher likelihood of having sexual education policy that mandates the coverage of contraception. We discuss these findings in a framework of symbolic politics and moral communities, focusing on the intersections of religion, politics, and sexuality.

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Fig. 1
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Notes

  1. Notably, both liberal and conservative American ideologies support the notion of childhood innocence, leading to ideas of “youthful sexual innocence and irredeemable sexual corruption” (Fields 2005, p. 560). The use of rhetoric about innocent children being corrupted or harmed is a powerful and effective means of gaining political ground, regardless of the specific policy in question (Best 1990), but especially in cases involving girls’ sexuality, such as sex education programs (see Egan and Hawkes 2008).

  2. At the same time, experimental studies are limited in terms of external validity, while observational studies of policy implementation cannot offer definitive conclusions regarding causality, particularly where states with high levels of teen pregnancy institute stricter abstinence-only sexual education policies. For example, SB3310, a 2012 law passed in Tennessee forbids anything that promotes “gateway sexuality”; but also has a provision stating that … if the most recent, annual data maintained by the department of health, state center for health statistics, indicate that pregnancy rates in any county exceeded nineteen and five tenths (19.5) pregnancies per one thousand (1,000) females aged eleven (11) through eighteen (18), then every [local education agency] within the county shall locally devise, adopt, and implement a program of family life education in conformance with the curriculum guidelines established for such programs by this section.

    In such circumstances, the implementation of abstinence-only education and teen pregnancy outcomes may operate in a feedback loop of policy and demography. For full text of the bill, see http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/107/Bill/SB3310.pdf.

  3. Another facet of the current research on sexuality programs focuses on how instructors feel about teaching sex education. One challenge that teachers face is trying to present sexuality education in the midst of many restrictions: federal, state, and local. An exploratory study in New Jersey revealed that only 1/3 of teachers felt satisfied with their ability to teach “family life education” courses in the face of these restrictions (Firestone 1994). Meanwhile, a survey of teachers in public secondary schools found that a focus on abstinence by teachers correlated highly with decreased presentation of information on sexuality, contraception, and family planning (Landry et al. 2003). As such, the sexual attitudes of teachers are a noteworthy component of the delivery of sexual education (Kehily 2002).

  4. Report available at: http://www.siecus.org/document/docWindow.cfm?fuseaction=document.viewDocument&documentid=73&documentFormatId=73.

  5. These numbers combine respondents for the continental and Alaska and Hawaii datasets.

  6. Data available at: http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/RCMSCY.asp.

  7. The Pew RLS asked two additional questions about God. The first asked theists to rate the level of certainty in their beliefs, from absolutely certain (1) to not at all certain (4). The second asked believers to choose which was closer to their view, that God was “A person with whom people can have a relationship” or an “impersonal force.” We used these to give states scores on mean levels of certainty and anthropomorphism among believers. We also standardized these metrics, along with the yes/no theism measure and created and additive index of theism that combined belief in general, certainty, and anthropomorphism. None of these metrics were as effective predictors of sexual education policy as the simple yes/no measure aggregated to the state level.

  8. In addition to the controls presented, we also tested models controlling for levels of direct democracy in state legislatures, percentage white in the population, median age, sex ratios, and income inequality. None of these metrics altered the relative impact of our primary findings.

  9. The relative consistency of levels of literalism for predicting both outcomes of interest suggest that this facet of population religiosity also warrants further inquiry.

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Baker, J.O., Smith, K.K. & Stoss, Y.A. Theism, Secularism, and Sexual Education in the United States. Sex Res Soc Policy 12, 236–247 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0187-8

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