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Is There Research That Supports Condom Availability?

Support for Condom Availability

53 percent of all Americans think that school personnel, such as nurses and counselors, should make condoms available to sexually active young people.¹
57 percent of adults think that high school health clinics should provide young people with condoms and other forms of birth control if the students ask for them.²
55 percent of Americans believe that it is appropriate for schools to distribute condoms to students.³
21 percent of Americans support making condoms available to middle school students, and 55 percent who would allow high schools to distribute condoms.⁴

Indiana

Adults in Indiana were asked if condoms should be made available to teenagers in the Indiana public schools without parental permission. 26.7 percent strongly agree and 27.1 percent somewhat agree.⁵
Of adults residing in Indiana, 36 percent strongly agree and 25.9 percent somewhat agree that the three major television networks should air commercials about condoms as one way to help prevent the spread of HIV.⁶
Of adults in Indiana, 48.8 percent strongly agree, 25.9 percent somewhat agree, that the federal government should promote condom use as a way to prevent the spread of HIV.⁷

New York

In 1991, the New York City Board of Education expanded HIV/AIDS education to include condom availability in every public high school. Of 716 parents and guardians whose children attended New York City high schools, 69 percent believed that students should be able to receive condoms at school.⁸
Nearly half of parents and guardians of New York City high school students felt that they should have the right to prevent their child from participating in the condom availability program. However, if permission was required, 2/3 of parents would allow their child to receive condoms.⁹
Parents and guardians of New York City High school students believe that making condom available at school will not have an effect on the amount of sex that their child is having (79 percent), will result in students practicing safer sex (75 percent), will encourage teenagers to talk to their partners about using condoms (66 percent), and will result in teens using condoms more often (72 percent).¹⁰
A study comparing New York City public high schools with a condom availability program to Chicago public high schools without a condom availability program found that condom availability has a modest but significant effect on condom use and does not increase rates of sexual activity.¹¹

North Carolina

52 percent of PTA presidents in North Carolina agree that teen health clinics should make contraceptives and condoms available.¹²

REFERENCES

SIECUS/Advocates for Youth Survey of America’s Views on Sexuality Education (Washington, DC: Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States and Advocates For Youth, 1999).
Sex in the 90s: Kaiser Family Foundation/ABC Television 1998 Survey of Americans on Sex and Sexual Health (Menlo Park, CA, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, September, 1998), p. 6.
J. Johnson and J. Immerwahr, First Things First: What Americans Expect From the Public Schools (New York, Public Agenda, 1994), p. 28.
Ibid
W. L. Yarber and M. R. Torabi, “Public Opinion From a Rural State About Condoms for HIV Prevention: 1993 and 1988,” Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, vol. 24, nos. 1 & 2 (1999): p. 58.
Ibid.
Ibid.
S. Guttmacher, L. Lieberman, D. Ward, A. Radosh, Y. Rafferty, and N. Freudenberg, “Parents’ Attitudes and Beliefs About HIV/AIDS Prevention with Condom Availability in New York City Public High Schools,” Journal of School Health, vol. 65, no. 3 (March 1995): p. 103.
Ibid
S. Guttmacher, L. Lieberman, D. Ward, A. Radosh, Y. Rafferty, and N. Freudenberg, “Parents’ Attitudes and Beliefs About HIV/AIDS Prevention with Condom Availability in New York City Public High Schools,” p. 104.
S. Guttmacher, L. Lieberman, D. Ward, N. Freudenberg, A. Radosh, and D. D. Jarlais, “Condom Availability in New York City Public High Schools: Relationships to Condom Use and Sexual Behavior,” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 87, no. 9 (September 1997): p. 1427.
Parents Speak: A Survey of North Carolina P.T.A. Presidents to Determine Their Attitudes and Beliefs About Family Life Education in the Public Schools (Charlotte, NC, North Carolina Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy, September 1993), p. 1.