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Kirby, D., Barth, R.P., Leland, N., & Fetro, J.V. (1991).
Family Planning Perspectives, 23 (6), 253 - 263
Description of Intervention: Reducing the Risk
The intervention was based on social learning, social inoculation, and cognitive behavioral theories. The intervention was carried out in 13 high schools in California. Health education classes offered the 15-session intervention as part of the 10th grade comprehensive health curriculum. Teachers who volunteered to implement the intervention curriculum attended a 3-day training session.
The curriculum included instruction on developing social skills to reduce sexual risk-taking behavior and used role play as a means of practicing and modeling those skills. Numerous activities supported the norm that students should avoid unprotected intercourse, either by not having sex or by using contraceptives. Students repeatedly role played situations where they recognized various forms of social pressure to have sex, examined the "lines" that young people use to obtain sex, were motivated to resist these pressures, and practiced effective strategies and skills to refrain from sex or unprotected sex. Over the 15 weeks, role plays were less scripted and more oriented to developing student's confidence in their ability to resist pressure. The curriculum also emphasized decision making and assertive communication skills, encouraged students to go to stores and clinics to obtain relevant health information, and required students to ask their parents about their views on abstinence and birth control.
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Intervention Goal(s): To determine the effects of a classroom intervention to postpone initiation of sexual intercourse and, among those sexually experienced, to reduce unprotected sex.
Intervention Setting: High school classrooms.
Population: Of the 758 students who participated in the study, 47% were male and 53% were female; 2% were African American, 2% were American Indian, 9% were Asian, 20% were Hispanic, 62% were white, and 5% were of other racial/ethnic groups. The average age was 15 years, and about 37% of the participants were sexually experienced prior to the study.
Comparison Condition: Usual sexuality instruction available in the school.
Behavioral Findings: Students receiving the intervention were significantly less likely to initiate sexual intercourse than those in the comparison condition; intervention students who were already sexually experienced were significantly less likely to engage in unprotected intercourse than sexually active students in the comparison condition. Contact:
Nancy Shanfeld, PhD
ETR Associates
PO Box 1830
Santa Cruz, CA 95061
Phone: 408 438 4060
Fax: 408 438 4618
Go to Get Real about AIDS 1992
This study meets CDC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis project criteria for relevance and methodological rigor and also has the positive and significant behavioral/health findings required for the Compendium. Date added 1/99
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