Evaluation of a randomized intervention to delay sexual initiation among fifth-graders followed through the sixth grade

Abstract

US adolescents initiate sex at increasingly younger ages, yet few pregnancy prevention interventions for children as young as 10–12 years old have been evaluated. Sixteen Washington, DC schools were randomly assigned to intervention versus control conditions. Beginning in 2001/02 with fifth-grade students and continuing during the sixth grade, students completed pre-intervention and post-intervention surveys each school year. Each year, the intervention included 10–13 classroom sessions related to delaying sexual initiation. Linear hierarchical models compared outcome changes between intervention and control groups by gender over time. Results show the intervention significantly decreased a rise over time in the anticipation of having sex in the next 12 months among intervention boys versus control boys, but it had no other outcome effects. Among girls, the intervention had no significant outcome effects. One exception is that for both genders, compared with control students, intervention students increased their pubertal knowledge. In conclusion, a school-based curriculum to delay sexual involvement among fifth-grade and sixth-grade high-risk youths had limited impact. Additional research is necessary to outline effective interventions, and more intensive, comprehensive interventions may be required to counteract adverse circumstances in students’ lives and pervasive influences toward early sex. ClinicalTrials. gov identifier: NCT00341471

Family Homework and School‐Based Sex Education: Delaying Early Adolescents' Sexual Behavior

“…Findings that students who had had sex in 6th grade, were male, older, and did not live in 2‐parent families were more likely to have had sex in 7th grade are also similar to previous research findings . The few evaluations of school‐based programs which included homework activities did not describe these activities in detail or assess their contribution to program effectiveness . However, in light of findings supporting the positive impact of parent/teen communication on teen sexual outcomes and indications that family homework assignments can increase parent‐teen sexual communication we believe that aspects of Get Real homework activities, such as a focus on sharing family values about sex, may have enhanced the effectiveness of sex education delivered in classrooms.…”

“…18 The program Building Futures for Youth also included family homework assignments, although their number was not specified in its evaluation. 19 No behavioral effects were found for this intervention, and the evaluators note that a parent workshop component of the program was not included in the evaluation due to poor attendance, a common problem in sex education programs that include family activities. 14 School-based sex education programs have had more success reaching out to families than any other type of program due to their direct access to students and their parents.…”

“…However, the impact of the homework component of this program has not been specifically evaluated . The program Building Futures for Youth also included family homework assignments, although their number was not specified in its evaluation . No behavioral effects were found for this intervention, and the evaluators note that a parent workshop component of the program was not included in the evaluation due to poor attendance, a common problem in sex education programs that include family activities …”

Improving Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Systematic Review of Potential Interventions

“…We identified 1,123 titles from the search conducted in all databases. After screening the titles and abstracts, 84 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62], [63], [64], [65], [66], [67], [68], [69], [70], [71], [72], [73], [74], [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83] [84], [85], [86], [87], [88], [89], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97], [98], [99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109] [110], [111], [112], [113], [114], [115], [116], [117], [118], [119], [120], [121], [122], [123], [124]; 51 studies were RCTs while 29 were quasi-experimental design and four were pre–post studies....…”

Protective Effects of Middle School Comprehensive Sex Education With Family Involvement

“…Middle school sex education programs show mixed findings for their effectiveness in delaying sex for early adolescents. Two evaluations of the It's Your Game: Keep It Real curriculum demonstrate its effect of delayed sex for both boys and girls, whereas another program showed no effects on sexual behavior . Other research has shown that program effects can vary for boys and girls .…”