UA “Sex Can Wait” Named Highest Ranked Abstinence Education Program

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — “Sex Can Wait” is the message of an abstinence education program developed at the University of Arkansas, and a team of Texas researchers have given the curriculum for older elementary students the highest rank for excellence in overall accuracy and effectiveness.

In a study detailed in the current issue of the Journal of School Health, “Sex Can Wait” earned top scores in many categories, including indicators of breadth and depth of content, cultural sensitivity and ease of implementation.

Researcher Tamera Young and Michael E. Young, University Professor of health science, are the authors of the segment for older elementary students in the “Sex Can Wait,” series, which also includes middle school and high school components.

The study assessed content, methods and overall quality of 21 curricula for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs used in Texas schools. The researchers, Kelly L. Wilson from Texas State University and Patricia Goodson, B.E. Pruitt, Eric Buhi and Emily Davis-Gunnels, all from Texas A&M University, used a rating system adapted from two sets of educational guidelines. They gave “Sex Can Wait--Upper Elementary School Curriculum” a composite score of 4.42, out of a possible 5, the highest ranked of the 21 curricula examined.

The recent article in the Journal of School Health comes on the heels of the Waxman Report on Abstinence Education, issued in December 2004, which examined the 13 abstinence curricula most frequently used in a program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This study, prepared for U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman, found that “Sex Can Wait” was one of only two curricula that did not contain major errors and distortions of public health information and did not include false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health.

“Sex Can Wait” and the training project from which it originated have been the subject of extensive academic and professional review. The program has won the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Award for Outstanding Work in Community Health Promotion five times. Papers regarding “Sex Can Wait” have been featured at conferences of several national scholarly and professional associations, including the American Medical Association’s first National Congress on Adolescent Health and annual meetings of the American School Health Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Five articles with evaluations of the positive impact of “Sex Can Wait” have been published in scholarly and professional journals.

Beginning this spring, the “Sex Can Wait” curriculum series will be published by the University of Arkansas Health Education Projects Office. The 2005 edition of “Sex Can Wait” for older elementary students will be available at the end of May by contacting the Health Education Projects Office at (479) 575-5639 or mhamman@uark.edu.