The Effects of an Abstinence-Based Sex Education Program on Middle School Students’ Knowledge and Beliefs

Abstract

A statewide evaluation of the Education Now and Babies Later (ENABL) program was conducted to assess its ability to increase adolescents'knowledge and beliefs about pregnancy prevention. ENABL is aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy through abstinence. Using a quasiexperimental research methodology, middle school students (N= 1,450) comprised a treatment group (n = 974) and a comparison group (n = 476). Subjects completed a pretest and posttest reflecting knowledge and beliefs about teenage pregnancy. ANCOVA revealed significant differences (F = 8.98, p < .001) on posttest scores between the two groups. The treatment group showed marked improvement from pretest to posttest scores, whereas the comparison group did not. These findings support the claim that the Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) curriculum is effective in affecting students' knowledge and beliefs about teenage pregnancy and illuminate the need for social work intervention at a variety of levels to address this multifaceted problem.

A Meta-Analysis of Published School Social Work Practice Studies

“…Table 3 shows three out of the four studies examining knowledge/learning had 95% confidence intervals that did not contain zero, thereby indicating the effect size is significantly different from zero, which indicates differences in treatment effect between the experimental and control group. Of these three studies, one study (Arnold, Smith, Harrison, & Springer, 1999) had a medium effect size (d = .45) while two studies (Barth, Fetro, Leland, & Volkan, 1992;Dhooper & Schneider, 1995) had large effect sizes, d = .87 and d = .82, respectively. The other study (Corcoran, 2006) had an effect size of .06, and the effect size was not significantly different from zero.…”

Improving Comfort About Sex Communication Between Parents and Their Adolescents: Practice-Based Research Within a Teen Sexuality Group

“…In this nation, it is estimated that $29 billion is spent each year caring for families with teenage parents (Henderson, 2000). Many teenagers who become parents may raise their children as single parents, a very difficult situation that frequently places them at higher risk for poverty (Arnold, Smith, Harrison, & Springer, 1999) and depression related to a lack of family support (Rushton, Forcier, & Schectman, 2002).…”

The Effectiveness of Sexual Psycho-Education Program for 8th Grade Students

“…Cinsel sağlık eğitiminin okullarda verilebilmesi, çocuklar için koruyucu önleyici bir psikolojik danışma ve rehberlik hizmeti alabilmeleri demektir. Araştırmalar, cinsel sağlık eğitimi alan öğrencilerin birbirlerine karşı daha duyarlı olduklarını, ergenlik dönemi riskli cinsel ilişkiye girme konusunda daha tedbirli olduklarını göstermektedir (Arnold ve Springer, 1999;Saito, 1998;Silva ve Ross, 2003;Kirby, 1994). Ayrıca bu konuda okullarda verilen tek bir eğitimin, öğrencilerin tutum ve davranışları üzerinde tek başına yeterli ve kalıcı bir etki yaratmayacağı da bazı çalışmalarda vurgulanmaktadır.…”