Project Taking Charge: Six-Month Follow-up of a Pregnancy Prevention Program for Early Adolescents

Abstract

In 1990 a follow-up case-control study of 91 7th-grade male and female students in Wilmington Delaware (39 students as controls) and West Point Mississippi (52 students as cases) was conducted to evaluate a 6-week abstinence-based pregnancy prevention curriculum (Taking Charge). No sex education program had existed in the schools beforehand. The children lived in low-income communities with high rates of unemployment and adolescent pregnancy. Curriculum units to which case students were exposed included self-development sex education (anatomy and physiology pregnancy sexual transmitted diseases [STDs] and sexual abstinence) vocational goal-setting and family values and communication. The treatment group retained a higher knowledge level in sexual development/STDs and sexual anatomy/physiology 6 months after completing the curriculum than did the control group (p < .05 and < .001 respectively). Students in the treatment group had significantly higher knowledge levels of complications caused by adolescent pregnancy than did those in the control group between pre-test and follow-up (p < .05) but less so between post-test and follow-up (p < .1). On the other hand as was the case with the pre-test/post-test comparison self-reported communication between the 7th graders and parents on sexual issues self-esteem sexual values or educational aspirations did not improve. Further at 6 months the gain in vocational communication with fathers at post-test no longer existed. Students in the control group who claimed to have never had sexual intercourse at pre-test were more likely to have had their 1st sexual intercourse within 6 months after the Taking Charge program than their treatment counterparts (50% vs. 23%; p = .051). These findings indicate that the Taking Charge program was effective in maintaining knowledge gains for at least 6 months and that these changes brought about sex behavior changes resulting in reducing the risk of adolescent pregnancy.