Report On The Teen-Aid Abstinence-Education Program

Tenth Year Evaluation

2005-2006

 Prepared For Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District

Drawer 990, Edinburg, Texas  78540-0990

Prepared by

Raja S. Tanas, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology

Whitworth College

Spokane, WA  99251-1105

e-mail: rtanas@whitworth.edu

(July 2006)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District has carried out annually a research project on how well it has served its students in the area of sex education. This evaluation report is based on the twelfth-year data that included responses from 4,244 junior high and senior high school students.

The program is based on Teen-Aid’s two sex-education curricula, Me, My World, My Future and Sexuality, Commitment, and Family that are written for junior high and senior high school students, respectively.  These two curricula have been regularly revised to include current medical information and material that was age appropriate.

The online self-administered questionnaire consisted of ninety-five items. The data were collected using FrontPage, saved in Access, exported in Excel spreadsheet format and imported into the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software for analysis. Employing an online survey proved helpful in collecting high quality data and made the data-collection process less inexpensive.

The students came primarily from households where the parents’ level of education was only a high-school degree or less and where religion played an important role in students’ lives. Male and female respondents were equally represented. One in five students had at least one sexual intercourse, a proportion that is below the national averages for comparable populations. The overwhelming majority of students were Hispanic.

The one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was the method of research. The primary statistical analyses included frequency and contingency tables in addition to the t-test techniques for dependent and independent samples.

For four years in a row, the research results continued to offer strong statistical evidence that the objectives of the Family-Life Education program were met well. Indeed, the program moved students toward a greater degree of commitment to abstinence until marriage. The program impacted at least thirty-three variables that measured attitudes, values, knowledge, and future behavioral intentions relative to teen sex. The following is a list of the variables that were significantly impacted. The variables are listed in the order in which they appeared on the online survey.

After completing the program, students were more likely to agree that:

 · Having sex before marriage was against their religious or personal beliefs

 · They could now say no to a person if he or she tried to pressure them to

   have sex

 · Avoiding the use of drugs and alcohol could help them to save sex for

   marriage

 · They were able to resist and control sexual urges

 · It was less likely that someone might try to get them to have sexual

   intercourse during the next year

 · Having sex as teenagers would make it harder for them to have a good

   marriage and family life in the future

 · Having sex or fathering a baby at their age could mess up their chances of

   being able to do things in the future, like going to homecoming, school

   activities, or going to college like other teens

 · Abstaining from sexual activity until marriage would help them accomplish

   their goals in life

 · They planned to wait until marriage to have sex

 · They believed having sex as a young person could mess up their future

 · They would not have sexual intercourse at any time before getting married

 · Having a child while unmarried would affect their life much worse off than

   they were now

 · They could go to their parents with questions about relationships and sex

 · They had a lot of respect for their parents’ ideas and opinions about sex

 · Their parents or guardians would want them to practice abstinence until

   marriage

 · They have discussed specific dating guidelines with their parents

 · A baby became a human life at conception

 · Sexual activity had harmful emotional effects

 · Abstinence was the only sure way to prevent pregnancy

 · Condoms did not necessarily provide protection from emotional and social

   consequences of sexual activity

 · Sexual urges could be controlled

 · The only certain way for teens to avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually

   transmitted diseases was to wait until they were married before having sex

 · Abstinence was the only 100 percent effective protection from the possible

   physical, emotional, mental and social consequences of sexual activity

   before marriage

 · Condoms would not make sex safe

 · Abstinence from all types of sexual activity was the best way to prevent

   the spread of HIV/AIDS

 · They planned to save sexual activity for marriage

 · They believed there were physical health advantages in waiting until

   marriage for sexual activity

 · Drugs and alcohol use had effect on their ability to abstain from sex

 · Even if there was no pregnancy, having sex could cause a lot of problems

   for unmarried teens

 · Sex among unmarried teens was wrong

 · They would not consider having a child before getting married

 · A person who has been sexually active is able to choose abstinence for the

   future

 · Although some have had sexual intercourse, they are currently choosing to

   be sexually abstinent

As was reported in earlier evaluations, the degree of program impact varied by teachers, grade levels, gender and sexual experiences. The impact of the program was greatest on junior high school students followed by non-virgins, virgins, females, and males, respectively. For the senior high school students, the program had the least impact, yet it still had a statistically significant effect on at least fourteen variables that were at the core of abstinence.

Past evaluations indicated that the teacher factor had a statistically significant impact on the degree to which the program was effective. The present evaluation was no exception.