Report On The Teen-Aid Abstinence-Education Program

Tenth Year Evaluation

2004-2005

 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 2005)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is based on data that Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District collected as part of its ongoing research project for evaluating the effectiveness of the school district’s Family-Life Education program. 

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 information and material that are medically referenced and appropriate to teens.

The study instrument is a ninety-seven-item online questionnaire. The online instrument contributed greatly to collecting high quality data and made the process relatively inexpensive. 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.

The current evaluation is based on data from 4,909 students. The data were collected during the 2004-2005 school year from students in seventh, and ninth through twelfth grade at seven schools.

Three-quarters of the sample belonged to 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 and one in five had premarital sex, a figure that is significantly below the national average for a comparable population. The large majority of students were Hispanic.

The one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was the method of study. Frequency and contingency tables in addition to t-test for dependent and independent samples were the primary statistical techniques used for analysis.

Results from the present evaluation offered strong 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 forty-seven variables that measured attitudes, values, knowledge, and behavioral intentions relative to teen sex. The following is a list of the variables that were impacted significantly. They are arranged in the order in which they appeared in the instrument.

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

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

 · They could make a wise decision

 · Things that were beyond their control did not necessarily determine their life

 · They would avoid situations that put them at risk of sexual advances

 · 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

 · It was important to them to do what was right, even if the consequence was

   loosing some friends

 · They were encouraged by their friends to be sexually abstinent

 · 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

 · They would quit the relationship if someone tried to get them to have sexual

   intercourse during the next year.

 · They hoped to get married and have a family someday

 · 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

 · A sexually active student was able to choose abstinence for the future

 · Getting a sexually transmitted disease would significantly affect their future

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

   were now

 · They planned to save sexual activity for marriage

 · It was important for them to talk about sex with their parents or guardians

 · 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 would want them to practice abstinence until marriage

 · That a baby became a human life at conception

 · Sexual activity had harmful emotional effects

 · Abstinence was the only sure way to prevent pregnancy

 · It was possible for people their age to contract sexually transmitted diseases

 · Condoms did not necessarily provide protection from emotional and social

   consequences of sexual activity

 · Sexual urges could be controlled

 · Abstinence was choosing not to engage in sexual activity until marriage

 · Sexually transmitted diseases could cause infertility and could cause cancer

 · 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

 · There were many different ways to show that they cared about their girlfriend

   or boyfriend without being sexually active

 · It was important for sexually active teens to make a new decision and stop

   having sex

 · It was normal for them to have strong feelings and thoughts about sex but having

   sex was not appropriate for them

 · They believed there were physical health advantages in waiting until marriage

   for sexual activity

 · Sex at their age was not a natural part of life

 · 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

The extent to which the program was effective varied by teachers, grade levels, gender and sexual experience. The impact was greatest among junior high school students followed by virgins, females, males, and non-virgin students respectively. For the senior high school students, the program had the least impact, yet it still had a statistically significant effect on at least ten variables that are fundamental to abstinence.

Past evaluations indicated that the teacher factor had a statistically significant impact on the degree to which the program was effective. Results of the present study replicated this finding by showing that the teachers continued to vary in the degree of their effectiveness in teaching the program.