Abstinence-based program teaches teens to wait
An abstinence-based education program in Oregon is helping kids buy time in postponing sexual involvement. An important key to the STARS (Students Today Aren’t Ready For Sex) program’s wide acceptance is that it is abstinence-based one facet of a comprehensive sexuality education program, says Diane Ruminski, program manager for the Multnomah County Health Department-based program in Portland.
"This does not take the place of students learning about contraception, birth control, or anything else," Ruminski notes. "We are one piece of that, and we focus on abstinence and why we believe it’s best for young teens to wait. It fits best in a comprehensive sexuality education program."
The school districts already have a sexuality health program, Ruminski explains. STARS has a "very clear and plain" message about abstinence. Questions about contraception are not discouraged, but rather referred to the appropriate resource.
"We really focus on we’re here to talk about why it’s better to wait," she says. "Obviously, the students need the full information, and we are part of a curriculum. The schools do offer those other pieces. Even though we do not talk about birth control and those kinds of things, we believe that our piece is just one part of that. [What] we’re hoping is to increase the age at which students become sexually active, encouraging them to postpone sexual involvement."
Demonstration project goes statewide
STARS began in 1995 as a demonstration project in six middle schools in Multnomah County. It has expanded into all middle schools in the nine-district Multnomah County area, with about 6,600 students in 38 middle schools receiving the program this year.
STARS also has gone statewide, with 18 of the state’s 34 counties now involved. Some 20,000 students in 99 schools received the program this year, says Kay Carlisle, MS, a Multnomah County Health Department investigator who is directing the statewide effort. Schools can offer the program to either sixth or seventh graders.
The STARS program is based on the Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) curriculum developed by the Atlanta-based Emory University/Grady Memorial Hospital Teen Services Program. This program, initiated in the 1980s, is designed to help young people identify pressures that may lead to sexual involvement and help them develop skills to resist such pressures. The PSI program in Atlanta also is closely tied to a contraceptive clinic for young teen-agers.
The five-week Oregon program is divided into the following sessions:
• exploring the risks of early sexual involvement;
• talking about the social pressures faced by students and focusing on the messages received from the media;
• examining the demands of peer pressure and the difficulties in setting personal limits;
• learning specific assertiveness techniques that allow young people to be respectful and keep their friends but indicate that they are not ready to have sex;
• a final session, using a "game-show" format, to reinforce STARS skills.
"With sixth graders, we are extremely interactive, with lots of activities," Ruminski says. "We focus in small groups, and give them multiple ways of learning the curriculum: either hearing it, or we have short video vignettes. They do role plays. We know that these young people have various ways of learning, and they also need to be busy. They’re very kinetic, so we like to move them around."
Teen educators key to success
One reason for the STARS program’s success is the effective use of trained teen educators to get across the abstinence message, Ruminski says. Program coordinators make initial contact at the high schools, talking with principals, counselors, and other key people to identify potential teen educators. Leadership classes, health occupations or future teachers tracks, and speech/drama classes serve as sources for these teens.
"We are looking for high school students who are good role models, who really get behind the message that it’s best for teens to wait, and have some basic communication skills in terms of getting in front of a classroom," Ruminski explains. "Our training with them is really focused on learning the curriculum and learning classroom management skills."
Two teen educators, preferably one male and one female from the same high school, are used for each five-session course. An adult program coordinator, who is employed by the county health department, accompanies the teen educators to each class visit. But as Ruminski terms it, "the teen leaders drive the whole show."
The Multnomah County STARS program employs two permanent staff members and three on-call employees. The flexibility of the on-call staff allows the program to schedule staffing during peak requests, which usually come in the autumn and spring.
The program has proven so popular that counties are waiting to come on board as staffing becomes available, Carlisle says.
"We are working very hard on being able to replicate this to be able to have a consistent product throughout the state," she notes. "We provide statewide training for both the teens and the adults, so we’re really focusing on quality, consistency, and the integrity of the program."
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