The University of Pennsylvania study found that, in a survey of 1,096 individuals, 80.4 percent favor a broader sex education for children, including condom instruction, than abstinence-only programs afford.
If the findings are correct for the American population at large, it shows that the Federal government is out of step with its citizen's desires for school sex education programs.
Presently, the federal government strongly favors abstinence-only education, allocating an estimated $170 million annually to programs that do not discuss birth-control and safe sex practices.
Critics of abstinence-only education say that no studies have conclusively shown that such programs have stopped teen sex and pregnancy.
The new study noted that 25 percent of American children have sex by the age of 15 and nearly 50 percent have sex by the age of 17.
The report also showed that most Americans, despite political leanings from liberal to conservative, bridge party lines in their belief that sex education should be comprehensive rather than abstinence only.
Of those surveyed, roughly 40 percent claimed themselves to be moderate, 35 percent claimed themselves conservative, and 25 percent said they were liberal.
Only 10 percent of those surveyed said they opposed comprehensive sex education for American children.
