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Contact information:
Postponing Sexual Involvement
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical
Center
3333 Burnet Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039
Website:
http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org
/svc/prog/psi/
Mission/Goals: Cincinnati Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) aims
to create positive peer pressure and social pressure among teens to
encourage them to abstain from sexual intercourse.
Notes: Thirty-three Cincinnati public schools participate in the PSI
program. PSI is modeled after a program started in 1983 by Dr. Marion
Howard at Emory University. It focuses on learning about sexual
involvement from peers.
Source(s):
www.cincinnatichildrens.org
/svc/prog/psi; conversation with program director |
2,860 students participate; 75 teen leaders |
5th
through 8th graders; 10th through 12th graders serve as teen leaders |
Please click here for more information on this evaluation.
Type of Evaluation: Outcomes monitoring
Note: PSI has also been evaluated in Atlanta, where the program
started. In 2005, a new evaluation of Cincinnati's PSI will also be
available.
Objective: To examine if PSI program goals are being met and how
the program can be improved.
Impact/Outcome Findings: Comparisons of pre-survey results with
post-survey results indicated statistically significant improvements in
four of the seven abstinence indicators and both of the assertiveness
skill indicators. During the 2003-2004 school year, 66% of participants
had substantial knowledge that “drug and alcohol use make it more
difficult to say “NO” to sex,” compared with 60% before PSI. (p < .05)
Over three-quarters (78%) of participants had a conversation with
parents/guardians about saying “NO” to sex, compared with 70% before PSI.
(p < .05) The same year, 53% of students agreed that having sex before
marriage was against their own personal
standards, compared with 46% before PSI and 48% planned to wait until they
got married to have sex, compared with 44% before PSI. (p < .05) Outcomes
continued: On the individually matched assertiveness measures, 30% of
participants reported they improved their knowledge of assertive
techniques, and 33% reported they strengthened their assertiveness rating
(p < .01). After completing PSI, 81% of respondents reported that they
better understood the effects of drug and alcohol use on saying “no” to
sex, 91% reported that they had learned ways to say “No” when being asked
to do something they did not want to do, and 79% reported that they felt
their friends would benefit from participating in PSI. Based on 25 teen
parent panel presentations, 71% of the student participants learned at
least three new consequences of teen parenthood that they did not know
before the presentations. Thirteen months after the program, 78% of
students reported they did not think sex would make them feel grown up,
compared with 69% before the program. Based on results from 2,787 students
in 2002-2003, 88% of students selected at least two assertive
communication techniques, compared with 78% pre-program, 64% of responses
to a pressure line were assertive compared with 58% pre-program, and 55%
of those students who recognized only one or no assertive techniques in
the pretest recognized more in the post-test.
Among parents, 85% reported that they were
supportive of PSI, and 15% were neutral or withheld judgment until they
learned more about it. Of parents surveyed, 94% reported that they thought
PSI would help a child postpone sex. Less than one percent of 2,860
students enrolled in classes hosting PSI had parents who wrote written
requests asking them not to participate. Among teachers, 89% thought PSI
was a good use of time, 84% thought the program should continue in the
public schools, 93% believed their students had benefited from the teen
leaders' instruction, and 78% thought the teen leaders were effective. |
No
fee |
