Teen birthrates have fallen 13 years in a row, but the most recent decline was so small that many observers now are worried that the downward trend will stall or reverse itself.

In the last decade, abstinence-only programs have received unprecedented federal support and have come to the forefront of discussions about sex education. This policy update reviews and analyzes the scientific research of abstinence-only sex education programs in school settings in the United States.

"Adolescents who sign a "virginity pledge" and then go on to have premarital sex are likely to disavow having signed such a pledge, according to an analysis of survey data by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researcher Janet Rosenbaum published in the advance online edition of the American Journal of Public Health's June 2006 issue.

• Almost one-third of non-virgins in the first survey who later took a virginity pledge recanted their experience with sexual intercourse in the second survey. Conversely, adolescents who have had premarital sex and then decide to make a virginity pledge are likely to misreport their earlier sexual history. This misreporting of sexual experience will make it difficult to accurately assess virginity pledges' effects on early sexual intercourse, according to the author.
                 
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