title: Abstinence education for rural youth: an evaluation of the Life's Walk Program.
abstract: This paper summarizes an evaluation of a school-based sexuality education program, an abstinence-only program, taught in public schools to eighth- and 10th-graders. The program uses infant simulators to provide adolescents with a realistic view of parenting and to encourage them to delay initiation of sexual behavior until marriage. Two evaluations are summarized here. The first evaluation used a pretest-posttest design. Significant increases in parent-adolescent communication, knowledge about sexuality, and sexual behavior were found. No changes were found in attitudes toward teen sexual activity. The second evaluation employed a quasi-experimental design with a treatment group and a comparison group, with testing delayed four months after the program. No group differences were found in attitudes, behavior, or communication. Program effects were found only for knowledge about sexuality.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008923:Missouri; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012424:Rural Population; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012736:Sex Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012746:Sexual Abstinence