Here are next days replies to that article. I´m glad to see I´m not the only one who thought it was bull =)
Sexing up the data on teenage girls
Janet Albrechtsen's article (Opinion, 12/11) cannot go unanswered by a statistician. We are told a US study found that sexually active teenage girls are more likely to suffer depression, and to attempt suicide, than girls who are not sexually active.
Albrechtsen portrays the study as hard evidence that sexual activity causes depression and suicide. This conclusion cannot be drawn from the data. Correlation is not causation. We may as well conclude that depression causes sexual activity; or that goannas prevent overpopulation, because smaller towns tend to contain more goannas. There is a host of alternative explanations for the US data.
A sub-group of teenagers might have higher rates of sexual activity and depression, giving rise to a correlation, without sexual activity causing depression in any individual. The data are based on survey responses, and young people who are reticent about admitting to sexual adventure on the questionnaire might also deny having suicidal thoughts; and so on.
The authors of the report cited by Albrechtsen were circumspect enough to acknowledge alternative explanations, and to investigate some of them. A lot of the rhetorical strength of Albrechtsen's argument rests on invoking the report as "evidence", with the implication that it is objective and authoritative.
The source of the report is the Heritage Foundation, described on its website as "a think-tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies".
As far as we know, this report has not passed through scientific peer review. It does not deserve to be represented as objective evidence.
Adrian Baddeley
Professor of Statistics
University of Western Australia
Janet Albrechtsen's argument about the sexualising of girls is frustratingly short on statistics, factually inaccurate and fails to make a compelling argument for reaching her conclusion: that the high rate of teenage sexual activity in Australia can be put down to the influence of indulgent boomer parents and sex educators.
Albrechtsen cites statistics published by The Medical Journal of Australia that Australia has the sixth-highest rate of teenage pregnancy among OECD countries, along with a high rate of teen abortions and poor knowledge of sexually transmitted disease. She fails to mention that the same article also points out that "a teenage mother in Australia is more likely to be . . . living in an area of socio-economic disadvantage", and that "young Aboriginal girls are over-represented among teenagers giving birth in Australia".
Yet the type of parenting which Albrechtsen blames, the "philosophy of . . . ballet at age three, birthday parties for 50 friends plus DJ at age seven, mobile phones at age nine, sex at age 15", is clearly that of the privileged middle class.
As a secondary school teacher, teaching health education to Year 10, I take issue with Albrechtsen's claim that "sex educators argue that abstinence can only be taught as one option, not the preferred one". My primary source of curriculum support materials is a book published by the WA Department of Health which lists among its aims "reflecting a philosophy where abstinence from sexual activity for school-aged students is the key focus".
After spending some time discussing relationships, self-esteem and assertiveness – how to say no – my class moved on to gathering information about contraception and sexually transmitted infections. One of my female students actually complained, "Why are you telling us everything bad about sex? Can't we talk about how good it is?"
Albrechtsen makes no reference to the part played by advertising and consumerism in the sexualisation of young girls. I suggest that she might look in that direction before placing the blame on parents and teachers.
Vivien Encel
Hilton, WA
Not a bad trick of Janet Albrechtsen to blame young girls' sexual precocity on a liberalism that otherwise produces such Aquarian phenomena as the John Howard Government.
Even trickier was making her case without mentioning the advertising industry and its relentless barrage of "be sexy" messages to girls as young as six or seven.
In a free market Janet's "abstinence" has to compete with a lot more seductive products. Stop whingeing.
Lynn Hayward
Weegena, Tas
It is a shame to see after all these years of feminism that management of teenage sexuality is still seen by some as a question of girls saying no.
The interesting thing is not that a group of 15-year olds want to have their pubic hair waxed off – surely a fairly innocent way to spend pocket money – but that adult women with real jobs and relationships with other adults want to do it, and that their partners find it attractive.
Disease and unplanned pregnancies are not the sole preserve of the young and ill-informed, though they are the same boring scare tactics that my parents' generation used on their teenagers to keep them in line. Did any of us ever really believe it would happen to us?
Pressure from peer groups and the desire to rebel play a part in early sexual activity. Management of those things should help us guide teenagers towards making healthy and informed decisions about which they will feel comfortable in future.
There are all sorts of ways for parents to subtly guide their children's choices – an outright ban on the desperately attractive is one sure way to make it even more irresistible.
Making girls the gatekeeper and offering sexual activity as one more area for rebellion is surely not the best or only answer to this serious issue.
Deborah Scott
St Lucia, Qld
Janet Albrechtsen quoted a dubious sounding US study which says sexually active girls are more than three times more likely to suffer depression than girls who are not sexually active and nearly three times more likely to attempt suicide than those girls not having sex.
Without any need for a study, I know damn well that Aussie blokes are three times more likely to be depressed if they're not sexually active. Not sure what that means.
Shaun Robson
Dingley, Vic
