European Study Tour: Lessons Learned Print
“In Europe, it seems like part of their natural instinct. ‘Why wouldn’t you wear a condom?” During organized focus groups, I heard parents and their teenage children talking openly about sexuality. Here we tend to hide it, push it into the shadows.”
~ Ernesto Nevarez, peer educator and EST participant from California.

Advocates' vision is informed by lessons learned during annual study tours that explore how Germany, France, and the Netherlands achieved significant reductions in teen pregnancies, births, abortions, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

  • In these countries, governments and society view accurate information and confidential sexual health services, not merely as a need of youth, but as their right. Addressing youth's right to information and services, in turn, depends upon society's acceptance of adolescent sexual development as normal and healthy.
  • The Dutch, Germans, and French spend far less time and effort than Americans in trying to prevent young people from having sex and more time and effort in educating and empowering young people to behave responsibly when they eventually decide to have sex.
  • Educators, health care providers, and parents collaborate in providing sexual health information. Parents' most imperative message is not that teens' sexual development is a problem but rather that sexual intimacy should not occur until adolescents are ready and only within a caring, mutually respectful relationship.
The message that European Study Tour participants returned with was simple: we need to change our attitudes and policies here in the United States to provide young people with the tools for responsible behavior—complete information about sexuality and access to confidential contraceptive services. During the study tour, participants routinely express their surprise at how “normal” adolescent sexuality is in Europe. Teens are taught about sex from an early age and therefore, little stigma is attached to the subject.

As a tool to illustrate these differences, Advocates produced a video[link]  in which EST participants question U.S. and European teens about what it means if a young person carries a condom in his/her wallet or purse. American teenagers answered that do so means you are “easy” and “looking for sex”, while the European teenagers responded that carrying contraception is simply the responsible act of being prepared, since sex without condoms is not an option. Contrary to popular belief in the U.S., having access to contraception does not encourage young people to engage in sexual behavior, but rather empowers them to make educated decisions for which they take responsibility. Proving this point, data shows that teens in France and the Netherlands typically engage in sexual intercourse at the same age or later than their U.S. counterparts, have fewer partners, and use contraception more consistently.

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