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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Challenge Team UK 'abstinence education'?

The Challenge Team does not use the word 'abstinence'.
The Challenge Team promotes healthy sexuality by affirming sexuality and sex, acknowledging sexual feelings and hormones and suggesting that teens 'save sex for marriage' in order to stay healthy now and enjoy marriage later.

I can see that sex is bad for teens, but why save sex for marriage?

The only way to guarantee freedom from sexually transmitted infections is when two uninfected people stay faithful to each other.
Children brought up with married parents do better in every department of life.
Cohabitation is different from marriage in several particulars. The public commitment and public promises give it a meaning and purpose. The average cohabitation lasts two years before either dissolving or marrying. Marriages do end in divorce but are much more likely to last for life.
In 60% of cases living together leads to living alone.
Marriages where the partners have saved sex for each other are much more likely to succeed.
The sexual bond will be a stronger emotional bond as it has not been weakened by attaching to many partners.
Married people report the most mutually fulfilling sex lives.
over 90% of teens say they hope to be married one day. Saving sex for marriage helps to give that marriage the best possible start.

What if someone never gets married?

Sex is not the only way to live a fulfilled and happy life.
No-one knows their future. People marry for the first time at all ages and stages.
Celibacy is a fulfilling lifestyle in its own right and needs to be affirmed in society as such.

Isn't it irresponsible to tell young people to save sex for marriage? For those who don't succeed it can be more risky as they may not be prepared and have unprotected sex.

Risk displacement is well known in medical circles. The protection offered by condoms in the population as a whole may be cancelled out in practice by the increase in the numbers of sexual acts. People are more likely to have sex if they think a condom will protect them.
The natural reticence which comes from fear of pregnancy can protect young people from sex which is damaging to them.
Contraception education has been common in schools now for over five years. It is not simply more information about contraception that young teens need, but information that empowers them to say 'no'.
By giving information about condoms and showing teens how to use them, adults who are the authority figures in teens' lives may be giving them, unintentionally, permission to have sex.
'Unprotected sex' implies that 'protected sex' is safe. Condoms reduce risk, but they do not eliminate it.
'Having sex' can never do a young teen good, whether they use a condom or not.

Isn't abstinence education based on fear?

Some fear is necessary to protect us in every day life, such as fear of running into the road or jumping off a high cliff. Fear of pregnancy or exposure can save a teen from making a serious mistake.
Young people who have had sexual experiences can be filled with fear - fear of meeting an 'ex', fear of pregnancy, fear of silent infection, fear of HIV/AIDS. Those who save sex have none of these fears.

Isn't the Challenge Team imposing moral views?

Challenge Team members do not 'preach'. They simply explain the reasons why they have decided to save sex for marriage.
All decisions involving other people are essentially moral decisions.

Isn't saving sex unrealistic?

Every society has certain prohibitions for children and young people which are accepted as normal. In all societies, other than in the west in recent times, some form of sex and marriage is culturally accepted by all. Of course some have always 'broken the rules', but the majority keep them.
Teenage sex now carries such high risks that saving sex is the only sensible option. When there is 'a scare' - corned beef, eggs etc, people stop eating them straight away. More publicity about the risks of pre-marital sex is needed.

What if you save sex for marriage and then find out that you are sexually incompatible?

Men and women are sexually compatible.
A relationship of love and commitment is what creates sexual compatibility.

Is the Challenge Team religious?

There is no mention of God or religion in the presentation.
All of those involved in the Challenge Team so far have Christian beliefs as the Christian faith promotes saving sex for marriage and this has caused them to look into the subject.
The Challenge Team Trust Deed has a Christian basis, although its purposes are broad.

How effective is the Challenge Team?

A presentation will affirm those who instinctively feel it is right to save sex for marriage.
A presentation will challenge those who have had, or intend to have, sex as a teen, and cause them to think again.
If onset of sexual activity is delayed, even in a few, then some teen pregnancies will be saved and STI transmission reduced.
If some save sex for marriage, then those marriages are likely to be happier and healthier.

Hasn't it been shown that abstinence education 'does not work'?

'Abstinence education' is not a single, one size fits all approach. The term is a broad generalisation that is used to describe a huge variety of programmes, mainly in the USA. The Challenge Team is not connected to any of the US programmes. Challenge Team started in Canada and was introduced into this country with British teens in mind. It is now completely indigenous.
'Abstinence education' is caricatured by opponents as 'Just say "No"'. However, good abstinence education arms students with the reasons why 'saying No' prevents harm. The Challenge Team presentation informs pupils of the many possible negative consequences of premature sexual activity. Condoms reduce risk, whereas saving sex eliminates all risk. There are many positives to be enjoyed for those who, having heard the pros and cons, decide to save sex.
Choices with regard to teenage sexual behaviour are not simple, but complex. Factors such as family background, sport involvement, peer group culture and personal expectations influence decision making. Both abstinence education and contraception education will certainly have influence, but will be delivered in the context of either competing or complementary factors, or a mixture of both.
Proponents of 'contraception education' do not say contraception education 'does not work', although the under 16s pregnancy rate has not reduced and sexually transmitted infection rates have increased dramatically since the Government introduced its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 2000.
The teenage pregnancy rate in the USA has gone down since the introduction of 'abstinence programmes' there. The only peer-reviewed published study looking at the causes of this attributed two-thirds of the reduction in unmarried teenage girls to saved sex.

(National Patient Safety Agency - supporting Doctors.net.uk members in safe practice. http://www.doctors.net.uk/NPSA)

Additional research: Abstinence Education: Assessing the Evidence. by Christine C. Kim and Robert Rector. Published by The Heritage Foundation.