141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

284507
Evaluation of adolescent sex education program provided by an agency to the maury county middle schools

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Hilda Aderoba, M.S. Health and Human Performance (Health) - May 2013 , Health and Human Performance, Middle Tennessee State University, Columbia, TN
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.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership

Learning Objectives:
Differentiate the amount of change in knowledge produced by the treatment group as compared to the control group of students who are not exposed to the curriculum. Evaluate the effectiveness of sex education and abstinence in middle schools. Identify ways of assisting sex education programs to be more efficient and beneficial to middle school students by addressing the student’s needs, concerns, and curiosity about sex and STIs. Assess progress made by the agency’s health educator’s long-term impacts on middle school students. Describe characteristics of an effective sex education program that will be beneficial to adolescents in acquiring knowledge that will empower them to take action in preventing unwanted pregnancies and avoid STIs.

Keywords: Sexual Risk Behavior, Adult and Child Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to be an abstract Author on the content I am responsible for because: I am the primary Author and lead investigator of this project. I am a graduate student at MTSU, I am working on my Master of Science in Health and Human Performance with concentration in Health (May 2013). I am the treasurer of the MTSU Health Promotion & Behavior Research Group. My area of interest is adolescent and sex ed.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.