FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - In the midst of the debate about the effectiveness of abstinence education programs in high schools, a program developed at the University of Arkansas has been shown to work with high school students. Results of a new study by researchers from the University of Arkansas and Boise State University appear in the September/October issue of American Journal of Health Behavior and document the effectiveness of the abstinence education program Sex Can Wait.

The study was conducted by UA researchers George Denny, associate professor in educational foundations; Michael Young, professor in health science; and Susan Rausch, health sciences graduate student, with Boise State University associate professor Caile Spear.

According to the published report, students participating in the high school component of Sex Can Wait were more likely to remain virgins, less likely to report participation in sexual intercourse in the last month, and more likely to indicate their intention to remain abstinent than a comparison group of students who did not participate in the program.

"These findings are encouraging and a bit surprising," said Denny, the research team leader. "Because of the relatively short time span between pretest and posttest, we did not expect to see behavioral changes."

Denny indicated previous research had shown that it might be necessary to wait as much as 18 months to see the effectiveness of a program on later adolescent sexual behavior.

"This may have been a case of students receiving the right message—abstinence—at the right time—when they were actually faced with decisions about sex," Denny said.

No significant behavioral changes were noted among students who participated in the upper elementary and middle components of Sex Can Wait. Researchers suggested that if these components are effective in helping young people avoid sexual involvement, then differences should be apparent in a long-term follow-up.

Sex Can Wait and the project from which the materials were developed have received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Award for Outstanding Work in Community Health Promotion five times and have been nominated for a sixth award. The curriculum series is used nationally in abstinence-only programs and was featured in Pregnancy Prevention Strategies, a publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In addition, the project has received four citations from the Governor of Arkansas, as well as other state awards.