The Impact of Sex Education on Graduation Rates: A Difference in Differences Approach

• In Event: Strategies to Improve High School Completion, College Enrollment, and Human Capital Accumulation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of sex education policy changes, altering the curriculum from abstinence-only, to abstinence-plus, or comprehensive sex education, on the academic attainment of African-American and Latina female students. This study focuses on these subgroups in response to research that indicates the disproportionate effect teenage pregnancy has on these students’ graduation, continuation into higher education, and life earnings. By using a difference in differences approach, I examine data in states adopting comprehensive or abstinence plus sex education with states that remained largely abstinence-only. Tentative results indicate that academic attainment for African American females and Latinas is improved when a comprehensive or abstinence-plus sex education policy is in place.

Author

• Brooke Midkiff, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill