Evaluation of adolescent sex education program provided by an agency to the maury county middle schools

Globally, unprotected sexual behaviors among adolescents are a major public health concern because they can lead to HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unwanted pregnancies. This study will evaluate adolescent sex education program provided by an agency to the Maury County middle schools. In order to determine the amount of change in knowledge produced by the program, the agency's "Choosing the best PATH" curriculum will be evaluated, this program will be carried out in three Maury County middle schools. Groups will be selected from sample of schools and classrooms by the agency's health educators. Classrooms of students will be randomly assigned to experimental and control groups by the agency. Preceding the intervention, both groups will participate in the pre-test using the agency's instrument; post-test will be administered immediately following the study. The treatment group will participate in a sexual health intervention program (sex education and abstinence), while the control group will participate in a regular nonsexual health education program. Effects of sex and age will be statistically controlled in this study. Data collection will be carried out prior to the intervention at baseline (pretest) and following the intervention (posttest). Program evaluation will be carried out in April 2013. No personal identifiers will be collected; the pretest and posttest will be linked by arbitrary identification numbers. Participants through the agency will include adolescents ages 12-14 years and exclude adolescents that are hospitalized, institutionalized, are not in Maury County Schools, or that refuse to participate in the programs.