Peers Educating Peers about Positive Values (PEP):

Evaluating Students and Mentors, 2005-2006

Summary

Kenneth F. Ferraro, Ph.D.

Karis Pallone, M.A.

January 15, 2007

Technical questions about the report should be directed to Dr. Ferraro, Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University, Stone Hall, 700 W. State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059  ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). All other questions should be directed to Eve Jackson, Project Director, The PEERS Project, P.O. Box 1410, Indianapolis, IN  46206-1410  ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Significant Findings

Dr. Kenneth Ferraro’s full report of his evaluation of The PEERS Project’s PEP program for the 2005-2006 school year was completed in December 2006.  He and his graduate assistant, Karis Pallone, MA, conducted four surveys: an experimental design with sixth graders in the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township (MSDLT); a follow-up survey of ninth grade students in MSDLT and MSD Pike Township (Pike); a baseline survey of PEP mentors; a follow-up online survey of mentors who previously had completed the baseline survey.

Experimental Design

A total of 1,207 sixth grade students at MSDLT surveyed in an experimental design showed important differences between students who were given the PEP program (treatment-group students) versus students who did not receive the program (control-group students).  Students were surveyed at Time 1 prior to treatment, and at Time 2 after the treatment group had received PEP, but before the control group received the program.

Highlights from this study’s findings include the following:

1.      Students in the treatment group who received PEP were 10.0% more likely than control-group students to be committed to abstinence at Time 2, and the percent of students committed to abstinence increased 15.45% between Time 1 and Time 2 for treatment-group students, but the percent of control-group students committed to abstinence only increased 2.06% between the two tests (Figure 1).

2.      The treatment group experienced significant increases in knowledge of the risks and consequences of having sex, and in their decisions to save sex for marriage between Time 1 and Time 2.

3.      Students in the PEP treatment group were significantly more likely than those in the control group to say they had received education in school about abstinence, STDs, HIV/AIDS, condoms, and sexual activity refusal strategies at Time 2.

4.      A total of 98 (14.78%) new commitments were made between Times 1 and 2, and 61.22% of those commitments came from treatment-group students (Figure 2).

Figures 1 and 2 below illustrate how students in the treatment group that received PEP were more likely to be committed to abstinence at Time 2, compared to students in the control group that did not receive PEP.

Figure 1.  Percent who reported being Committed to Abstinence at Times 1 & 2

Figure 2.  Number of New Abstinence Commitments between Times 1 & 2

Survey

A total of 2,171 surveys and parent consent letters were mailed to all ninth grade students’ parents in MSDLT and Pike in the spring of 2006.  Only 272 surveys were returned in the enclosed envelope that was addressed to Dr. Ferraro at Purdue; the response rate was 12.53%.  Both township school corporations are located on the north side of Indianapolis.  Although more of Pike’s respondents are black, students’ gender, grade point average, and parent’s education are similar in both schools based on survey responses.  One hundred ninety-two (70.59%) surveys were from MSDLT students and 80 (29.41%) came from Pike students.  A majority of these MSDLT students had received PEP throughout middle school, whereas approximately 30% of respondents in Pike had received the program.  Results should be interpreted with caution because they may not be representative of the student population in MSDLT and Pike.  It is possible that bias occurred in survey results since surveys were mailed to parents in order to obtain their consent to let their child participate in the study.  Students who were sexually active may have been reluctant to complete this survey because of its sensitive nature, or worried about their parents seeing their survey results.  This may be why only 11.44% of respondents reported having oral sex and/or coitus.  The 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) reports that 34.3% of ninth graders in their nationally representative sample of approximately 14,000 high school students reported ever having coitus.>[1]  Despite this study’s limitations, however, these findings should be used as stepping stones for future evaluations.

The same pre-/post-test instrument that was administered to PEP program participants in middle school was used; however, three distinct questions were added to the ninth-grade survey that were not part of the middle school students’ survey: 

1.      Have you had sexual (penile/vaginal) intercourse? (Yes/No)

2.      Have you had oral sex? (Yes/No)

3.      When did you have The PEERS Project PEP Program?  Mark all that apply.  (I never had the PEP Program/6^th grade/7^th grade/ 8^th grade/9^th grade)

The main findings that emerged from this survey include:

1.      Students in ninth grade who received PEP’s abstinence education were twice as likely to be abstinent than other ninth grade students who did not participate in PEP.  In addition, students who received PEP were more likely to say they received “abstinence” education, compared to students who did not have PEP.

2.      Students who received PEP were more likely to have made abstinence commitments and had good reasons to save sex for marriage.

>3.      Students who received PEP manifested higher sexual responsibility on the knowledge and attitudes questions including questions related to condom fallibility, love waits, and abstinence assures no pregnancy.

4.      PEP’s cumulative effect is among its greatest strengths.  The greater the number of years that students received PEP, the more likely they were to remain sexually abstinent by the ninth grade. 

Mentor’s Baseline Survey

A total of 743 peer mentors took the baseline survey during the 2005-2006 school year.  The data reveal that mentors understood the questions and were very forthcoming in revealing their attitudes and behaviors.  Compared to 2004-2005 demographic characteristics, the percent of female mentors increased from 67% in 2004-2005 to approximately 76% in 2005-2006.  The percent of mentors who are black increased 6% between 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 with nearly 9% of this year’s sample being black.  In 2004-2005, 40% of the state’s mentors were in ninth and tenth grades, while 2005-2006 ninth and tenth grade students made up 51% of the sample. 

Some primary findings of this year’s baseline mentor’s survey include:

1.      A total of 73 mentors out of 659 who answered whether they had had oral sex and/or intercourse had ever had sex (11%).  All together, 13 mentors had only intercourse, 34 had only oral sex, and 26 had both oral sex and intercourse.  Compared to the nationally representative sample of high school students surveyed for the 2005 YRBS, 46.8% of high school students reported ever having intercourse.>[2]  The percent of students who reported not having oral sex but having intercourse was very low, only 1.9% (13 cases).  On the other hand, 42.3% of students who reported having oral sex also had intercourse.  Results reveal that students’ likelihood of having intercourse increased by engaging in oral sex, thus validating a “gateway” hypothesis.

2.      Approximately 60% of the mentors who reported having sex were sexually active before becoming a mentor but had not engaged in sex since becoming a mentor.

3.      Mentors became more likely to have intercourse and/or oral sex the more hours they worked per week, especially when their number of work hours approached 16-20 hours per week.  However, mentors who worked more than 20 hours per week were less likely to have had intercourse and/or oral sex.

4.      Mentors who spent more than eight hours with a boy/girlfriend per week, whose friends approved of sex, and who knew of a number of friends who had sex were more likely to have oral sex and intercourse.

Mentor’s Follow-up Online Survey

During the 2005-2006 school year, 706 mentors who previously had completed the paper baseline survey were emailed an invitation to complete PEERS’ online survey administered by Purdue University.  Of these, 245 completed it.  The majority of online mentor respondents were in college (73.1%) and 36% were still serving as PEP mentors.  The majority of mentors reported that they were still abstinent with 15.54% saying they had intercourse while 25.46% said they had oral sex.