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It's Your Game: Keep It Real: delaying sexual behavior with an effective middle school program
Susan R Tortolero1, Christine M Markham, Melissa Fleschler Peskin
1Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. Susan.Tortolero@uth.tmc.edu
Summary
The It's Your Game: Keep it Real (IYG) program reduced adolescent sexual initiation by 24 months. This theory-based intervention, targeting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy prevention, proved effective in delaying sexual activity among middle school students.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Adolescent Health
- Health Education
Background:
- Adolescent sexual behavior poses risks for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancies.
- Effective prevention programs are crucial for delaying sexual initiation and promoting safer practices among youth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the theory-based "It's Your Game: Keep it Real" (IYG) intervention in delaying sexual activity among middle school students.
- To test the hypothesis that IYG would decrease the proportion of adolescents initiating sexual activity by ninth grade compared to a control group.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial was conducted in a large, urban, predominantly African-American and Hispanic school district in Southeast Texas.
- Ten middle schools were assigned to either the IYG intervention or a comparison condition, with seventh-grade students followed through ninth grade.
- The IYG intervention involved 24 lessons integrating classroom activities, computer-based instruction, and personal journaling.
Main Results:
- By ninth grade, 29.9% of students in the comparison group initiated sexual activity, compared to 23.4% in the IYG intervention group.
- Students in the comparison group were 1.29 times more likely to initiate sexual activity by ninth grade than those in the intervention group, after adjusting for covariates.
- The intervention demonstrated a significant impact on delaying sexual initiation, with effects observed up to 24 months.
Conclusions:
- A theory-driven, multi-component curriculum-based intervention like IYG can effectively delay sexual initiation in adolescents.
- The IYG program showed potential in impacting specific sexual behaviors, including oral and anal sex initiation, and may be particularly effective for females.
- Further research is needed to explore the generalizability of these findings to diverse populations.
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