Operation Keepsake. Operation Keepsake is a sexual abstinence education program for 12- and 13-year old children in Cleveland, Ohio. Some 77 percent of the children in Cleveland, Ohio. Some 77 percent of the children in the program were black or Hispanic. An evaluation of the program in 2001, involving a sample of over 800 students, found that “Operation Keepsake had a clear and sustainable impact on…abstinence beliefs.” The evaluation showed that the program reduced the rate of onset of sexual activity (loss of virginity) by roughly two-thirds relative to comparable student in control school who did not participate in the program. In addition, the program reduced by about one-fifth the rate of current sexual activity among those with prior sexual experience. (2)

Abstinence by Choice. Abstinence by Choice operates in 20 schools in the Little Rock area of Arkansas. The program targets 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade students and reaches about 4000 youth each year. A recent evaluation, involving a sample of nearly 1000 student, shows that the program has been highly effective in changing the attitudes that are directly linked to early sexual activity rates of girls by approximately 40 percent (from 10.2 percent to 5.9 percent) and the rate for boys by approximately 30 percent (form 22 percent to 15.8 percent) when compared with similar students who had not been exposed to the program. (The sexual activity rate of students in the program was compared with the rate of sexual activity among control students I the same grade in the same schools prior to the commencement of the program.) (3)

Virginity Pledge Movement. A 2001 evaluation of the effectiveness of the virginity pledge movement using the data from the national Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health finds that virginity pledge programs are highly effective in helping adolescents delay sexual activity. According to the authors of the study:

     Adolescent who pledge, controlling for all of the usual characteristics of adolescents and their social context that are associated with the transition to sex, are much less likely that adolescents who do not pledge, to have intercourse. The delay effect is substantial and robust. Pledging delays intercourse for a long time.

     The study, based on a sample of more than 5000 students, concludes that taking a virginity pledge reduces by one-third the probability that an adolescent will begin sexual activity compared with other adolescents of the same gender and age, after controlling for a host of other factors linked to sexual actively rates such as physical maturity, parental disapproval of sexual activity, school achievement, and race. When taking a virginity pledge is combined with strong parental disapproval o0f sexual activity, the probability of initiation of sexual activity is reduced by 75 percent or more. (4)

Teen Aid and Sex Respect. An evaluation of Teen Aid and Sex Respect abstinence education program in three school districts in Utah showed that both programs in three school districts in Utah showed that both programs were effective among the students who were at the greatest risk of initiating sexual activity. Approximately 7000 high school and middle school students participated in the evaluation. To determine the effects of the programs, students in schools with the abstinence programs were compared with students in similar control schools within the same school district. Statistical adjustments were applied to further control for any initial differences between program participants and control students. The programs together were shown to reduce the rate of initiation of sexual activity among at-risk high school students by over a third when compared with a control group of similar students who were not exposed to the program. Statistically significant changes in behavior were not found among junior high students.

    When high school and junior high school students were examined together, Sex Respect was shown to reduce the rate of initiation of sexual activity among at risk students by 25 percent when compared with a control group of similar students who were not exposed to the program. Teen Aid was found to reduce initiation of sex activity by some 17 percent. A third non-abstinence program, Values and Choices, which offered non-directive or value-free instruction in sex education and decision-making, was found to have no impact on sexual behavior.(5)

Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality (FACTS). An evaluation performed for the national Title XX abstinence program examined the effectiveness of the Family Accountability Communicating Teen Sexuality abstinence program in reducing teen sexual activity. The evaluation assessed the FACTS program by comparing a sample of students who participated in the program with a group of comparable student in separate control schools who did not participate in the program. The experimental and control students together comprised a sample of 308 students. The evaluation found the FACTS program to be highly effective in delaying the onset of sexual activity. Students who participated in the program were 30 percent to 50 percent less likely to commence sexual activity than were those who did not participate. (6)

Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI). Postponing Sexual Involvement was an abstinence education program developed by Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and provided to low-income 8^th grade students. A study published in Family Planning Perspectives, based on a sample of 536 low-income students, showed that the PSI program was effective in altering sexual behavior.  A comparison of the abstinence program participants with a control population of comparable low-income minority students who did not participate showed that PSI reduced the rate of initiation of sexual activity during 8^th grade by 60 percent for boys and over 95 percent for girls. As the study explained:

 The program had a pronounced effect on the behavior of both boys and girls who had not been sexually involved before the program…By the end of eighth grade, boys who had not had the program were more than three times as likely to have begun having sex as were boys who had the program…Girls who had not had the program were as much as 15 times more likely to have begun having sex as were girls who had had the program.

      The effects of the program lasted into the next school year even though no additional sessions ere provided. By the end of the 9^th grade, boys and girls who had participated in PSI were still some 35 percent less likely to have commenced sexual activity than were those who had not participated in the abstinence program.(7)

Project Taking Charge. Project Taking Charge is a six-week abstinence education curriculum delivered in home economics classes during the school year. It was designed for use in low-income communities with high rates of teen pregnancy. The curriculum contains these elements: self-development; basic information about sexual biology (anatomy, physiology, and pregnancy); vocational goal-setting; family communication; and values instruction on the importance of delaying sexual activity until marriage. The effect of the program has been evaluated in two sites: Wilmington Delaware, and West Point Mississippi. The evaluation was based on a small sample of 91 adolescents. Control and experimental groups were created by randomly assigning classrooms to either receive or not receive the program. The students were assessed immediately before and after the program and through a sex-month follow-up.

      In the six-month follow-up, Project Taking Charge was shown to have had a statistically significant effect in increasing adolescent’s knowledge of the problems associated with teen pregnancy, the problems of sexually transmitted diseases, and reproductive biology. The program was also shown to reduce the rate of onset of sexual activity by 50 percent relative to the students in the control group, although the authors urge caution in the interpretation of these numbers due to the small size of the evaluation sample. (8)

Teen Aid Family Life Education Project. The Teen Aid Family Life Education Project is a widely used abstinence education program for high school and junior high students. An evaluation of the effectiveness of Teen Aid, involving a sample of over 1,300 students, was performed in 21 schools in California, Idaho, Oregon, Mississippi, Utah, and Washington. The Teen Aid program was shown to have a statistically significant effect in reducing the rate of initiation of sexual activity (loss of virginity) among high-risk high school students, compared with similar students in control schools. Among at-risk high school students who participated in the program, the rate of initiation of sexual activity was cut by more than one fourth, from 37 percent to 27 percent. A similar pattern of reduction was found among at-risk junior high students, but the effects did not achieve statistical significance. (9)

1. Andrew Doniger, “Impact Evaluation of the ‘Not Me, Not Now’ Abstinence Oriented, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Communications Program, Monroe County, New York, “Journal of Health Communications, vol. 6 (2001), pp. 45-60. Both shifts in attitudes and the decline in sexual activity rate over the intervention period were statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level. The difference in the rate of decline in adolescent pregnancy in Monroe County, when compared to other geographic areas, was statistically significant at the 95 percent levels.
2. Elaine Borawski et al., Evaluation of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Funded through the Wellness Block Grant (1999-2000), Center for Health Promotion Research, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, March 23, 2001. The program effects on sexual activity were significant at the 93 percent level.
3. Stan E Weed, Title V Abstinence Education Programs: Phase I Interim Evaluation Report to Arkansas Department of Health, Institute for Research and Evaluation, October 15, 2001. The effects of the program in reducing the onset of sexual activity were statistically significant at the 98 percent confidence level.
4. Peter S Bearman and Hanna Bruckner, “Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 106, No. 4 (January 2001), pp. 861,862. Te effects of a virginity pledge were shown to be statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level.
5. Stan E Weed, Predicting and Changing Teen Sexual Activity Rates: A comparison of Three Title XX Programs, report submitted to the office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, US Department of Health and Human Services, December 1992. The effects the programs had on at-risk high school students were significant at the 99 percent confidence level.
6. Stan E Weed, FACTS Project: Year End Evaluation Report, 1993-1994, prepared for the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Programs
7. Marion Howard and Judith Blarney McCabe, “Helping Teenagers Postpone Sexual Involvement,” Family Planning Perspectives, January/February pp21-26. These effects were statistically significant at the 99 percent level.
8. Stephen R. Jorgensen, Vicki Potts, and Brian Camp, “Project Taking Charge: Six-Month follow-Up of a Pregnancy Prevention Program for Early Adolescents,” Family Relations, pp401-406. The effects of the program in reducing the rate of onset of sexual activity were statistically significant at the 94.9 percent confidence level. The effects of the program on specific areas of knowledge were significant at the 95 percent confidence level and above.
9. Stan E Weed, Jerry Prigmore, and Raja Tanes, The Teen Aid Family Life Education Project; Fifth Year Evaluation Report, Institute for Research and Evaluation. The effect of the program on the sexual activity of high-risk high school students was statistically significant at the 99 percent level.

 This is the tip of the iceberg. The evidence that abstinence education works is overwhelming. However, the credible studies that support abstinence education do not seem to interest the main stream media. What will we cover next? We will take a look at three recent studies that sought to discredit abstinence education. These three studies received extensive media coverage and their content was even used (to take a jab at abstinence education) by late night comedians. We will look at the science (or lack of it) behind the studies as well as the media response to the studies. I don’t know when I’ll have time to get this up. Come back soon. Many of you probably have in mind the “studies” I will address. Keep your eye on the site. The title of that page will be, “Bad Science”.