Abstinence education for rural youth: an evaluation of the Life's Walk Program

This paper summarizes an evaluation of a school-based sexuality education program, an abstinence-only program, taught in public schools to eighth- and 10th-graders. The program uses infant simulators to provide adolescents with a realistic view of parenting and to encourage them to delay initiation of sexual behavior until marriage. Two evaluations are summarized here. The first evaluation used a pretest-posttest design. Significant increases in parent-adolescent communication, knowledge about sexuality, and sexual behavior were found. No changes were found in attitudes toward teen sexual activity. The second evaluation employed a quasi-experimental design with a treatment group and a comparison group, with testing delayed four months after the program. No group differences were found in attitudes, behavior, or communication. Program effects were found only for knowledge about sexuality.