Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116951

Rick S. Zimmerman, PhD and Pamela K. Cupp, PhD. Department of Communication, University of Kentucky, 245 Grehan Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0042, 859-257-4099, rszimm@uky.edu

Background: To date, many evaluations of abstinence-only sex education programs have been conducted. Generally, these evaluations have suggested the programs have little or no effect. The goal here is to describe what programs have been implemented, and how the evaluations have been conducted in order to suggest different kinds of programs and evaluations to truly assess whether abstinence programs can be effective.

Methods: All state program evaluations publicly available and all scientific journal articles, including review articles, of abstinence-only school-based sex education programs are carefully reviewed. Descriptions of both the content of the programs and evaluation methods are presented.

Results: A careful review of programs and methods of evaluations suggests that, from a scientific standpoint, both have often been problematic. Programs often contain significant moral teachings, are preachy, propose abstinence “until marriage” rather than delay of sexual activity, are too short, are primarily knowledge- rather than skills-based, and are often targeted at populations where significant sexual activity is already occurring. All of these characteristics are contrary to what we know about effective behavior change programs. In addition, evaluations rarely include control groups, suffer from poor and imprecise measurement, and use outcome periods that are generally too short.

Conclusions: In order to assess whether abstinence programs can work, they should be based on scientific rather then religious or moral principles, should be rigorously evaluated, and should be targeted at populations that have not yet initiated sexual activity.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Summarize research to date on abstinence programs generally.
• Summarize research to date on several specific abstinence-only programs.
• Delineate some of the suggested reasons why abstinence programs haven't worked to date.
• Describe some of the ways researchers might more successfully develop and carefully test abstinence programs.

Keywords: Sexual Behavior, School-Based Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.