FYI for Teens & Parents: Results from a School-based Sex Education Program

Format

Poster Presentation

Location

Harborside Center

Strand #1

Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

The purpose of this poster presentation is to report findings from sexual abstinence-based education program and to discuss risk behavior factors and commitment to abstinence among middle and high school students.

Brief Program Description

The program is provided in public schools in rural southwest Missouri and is funded through federal Title V monies. FYI for Teens and Parents is an abstinence-based program/study designed to reduce unplanned first-time teen pregnancy as well as repeat teen pregnancy in Southwest Missouri. Trained instructors provided a standardized curriculum over an 8-day period (i.e. Choosing the Best (CTB) and Making a Difference (MAD), to youth ages 11-17 in rural and metropolitan areas at nine school districts during the 2014-15 academic year.

Summary

The three major findings from the analyses of 1,346 matched surveys analyzed using Analysis of Variance methods are: (1) Commitment to Abstinence- Forty-seven percent of those surveyed had a strong commitment to abstinence before and after the program. (2) Increased Commitment to Abstinence among teens who already held those abstinence beliefs; and (3) Increase in Knowledge in knowledge about STDs/HIV and sexual risk behaviors.

Evidence

Risk behaviors reflected in the 1,346 matched surveys analyzed using Analysis of Variance include:

  • Rates of antisocial risk behavior were low, but were higher among students with early onset sexual debut. The most common antisocial risk behavior was fighting.
  • Rates of substance abuse were generally low, with drinking the most frequent.
  • Sexual risk behaviors were the lowest of risk behaviors surveys.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Susan Dollar is a professor of Social Work at Missouri State University. She served as the Director of the School of Social Work at Missouri State University from 2008-2012 and coordinated the MSW program from 2006-2008. She earned her M.S.W. in 1990 from the University of Missouri-Columbia and her Ph.D. in Social Work from Tulane University in 1998. Dr. Dollar’s research and service work address rural health disparities among at-risk groups. Her current grant work involves sexual risk avoidance strategies among rural youth. Dr. Dollar publishes and presents regularly on rural health topics, and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Social Work in Disability and Rehabilitation.

Presentation Year

2016

Start Date

3-8-2016 4:00 PM

End Date

3-8-2016 5:30 PM

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Mar 8th, 4:00 PM Mar 8th, 5:30 PM

FYI for Teens & Parents: Results from a School-based Sex Education Program

Harborside Center

The program is provided in public schools in rural southwest Missouri and is funded through federal Title V monies. FYI for Teens and Parents is an abstinence-based program/study designed to reduce unplanned first-time teen pregnancy as well as repeat teen pregnancy in Southwest Missouri. Trained instructors provided a standardized curriculum over an 8-day period (i.e. Choosing the Best (CTB) and Making a Difference (MAD), to youth ages 11-17 in rural and metropolitan areas at nine school districts during the 2014-15 academic year.