Purpose: Successful implementation of sexual health curricula in school settings is often compromised by competing academic priorities. This study explores the association between exposure to sexual health lessons (time-on-task in hours and lesson content topics) and delayed sexual initiation of middle school students at long term follow-up.
Methods: Post hoc data analysis was conducted from a RCT (n=15 middle schools) in the south-central U.S. in which grade 7 students demonstrated delayed sexual initiation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.20 to 1.99) by grade 9 follow-up after using It’s Your Game (IYG), a 24 lesson sexual health curriculum. Logistic regression was conducted on a sub-sample of 314 grade 7 and 8 students who received IYG and who were sexually inexperienced at baseline, adjusting for covariates of age, gender, and race/ethnicity to address the impact of lesson exposure variables (time-on-task in hours and type of sexual health content) on initiation of any sex by grade 9.
Results: The greatest impact of exposure on delayed sexual initiation was a duration of 13 or more lesson hours (OR = 8.40; p\u3c0.05) and exposure to lesson content on HIV/STI and pregnancy consequences (OR = 4.93; p\u3c0.05).
Conclusions:
Results support previous exposure studies and provide guidance on how effective sexual health curricula can meet the challenges of delivery in a reduced and competitive academic environment
