How does the program work?

• Students in participating school districts receive 8-10 lessons per year through core curricula classes, such as science in 6th grade through 8th grade. In high school, Worth the Wait is implemented in health class. They are taught by the science or health teachers within the school district. The majority of these lessons revolve around forming a set of skills that will help the student resist the pressure to become involved in sexual activity, alcohol consumption, drugs, violence, and other risk behaviors. Lessons include chapters that focus on goal setting, communication, refusal skills, setting boundaries, relationship skills, conflict resolution, the dangers of alcohol and drugs in regard to sexual activity, and media discernment.  In addition, trained Worth the Wait nurse educators visit each grade once a year and teach lessons about puberty, reproductive anatomy and sexually transmitted diseases, and fetal development and childbirth. Students are encouraged to ask questions during these presentations, and questions are answered in a medically accurate manner.
  

Isn't sexual activity a moral choice? How do you teach that in the classroom?

• WTW advocates avoiding the onset of early sexual activity from a public health, social, and economic perspective, not from a moral or religious perspective.  Identifying early teen sexual activity as a public health issue has enabled us to develop a team of medical professionals to present and teach key components of our program. Educators, professional speakers, and youth leaders are also utilized, as well as targeting the community at large in order to change the social expectations regarding teen sexual activity and create a supportive community atmosphere that values abstinence as an attainable and desirable goal for teens.  By impacting a large cross-section of the community, we provide many different voices speaking the same, clear message to teens.
  

What framework does your program operate on?

• WTW's Community Saturation Model is unique in that it applies widely accepted social marketing theories and strategies to a teen risk avoidance program. This model is a research-based, multi-disciplinary approach from the fields of psychology, education, sociology, and marketing which includes rationale based on widely accepted theories: Bandura's Social Learning, Ajzen's Planned Behavior, Jessor & Jessor's Theory of Problem Behavior, and Baumrind's Parental Styles. The Model targets teens, as wells as impacting many levels of the community by educating adults, parents, and community leaders to communicate effectively with teens about avoiding negative risk-taking behaviors.  In addition, Worth the Wait relies on the involvement of the community in its educational efforts. Focus groups, surveys, and interviews conducted among teen program participants, parents, and community members provide direction. Our Teen Advisory Council is used to provide direction and feedback for all program activities.  Our heavy dependence upon the community base results in increased community awareness, buy-in, and ownership of the effort to combat teen risk behaviors, such as alcohol, drugs, sexual activity, tobacco, and violence.
  

Are students and teens Worth the Wait's only targets?

• We also target parents as the primary educators of their children.  Research has shown that teens rank their parents, not their friends, as the strongest influence in their decisions about sexual activity.  Therefore, it is extremely important that parents talk with their teens, starting when they are still young children, about these issues.  Worth the Wait offers several resources to assist parents.  We have a four part parent program that focuses on sexually transmitted diseases, the media, pornography, and how to get the conversations started.  We are also beginning a nine part parent series in Spanish to help Hispanic parents talk with their teens in a culturally relevant manner. Finally, we have a quarterly parent newsletter in English and Spanish, a resource library, and our website, www.worthwait.org.
  

Why should school districts get involved with teaching these issues?

• While the best place for instruction about these issues is at home, sometimes that doesn't happen. At the same time, school districts can also reap the benefits of teaching teens to remain sexually abstinent. According to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, abstinent teens have much higher academic outcomes than teens who are not abstinent. Virgin teens are 60 percent less likely to be expelled from school, 50 percent less likely to drop out of high school, and almost twice as likely to graduate from college. The linkage between academic achievement and abstinence has two explanations. First, abstinent teens are less likely to be exposed to the emotional and psychological consequences of sexual activity at a young age and are better able to focus on their school work. Second, the skill sets taught by abstinence education, such as goal setting, resistance to peer pressure, impulse control, and communication lead them to success in life. For more information about the Heritage Foundation study, see www.heritage.org
  

How is the program evaluated? What are the results?

• Worth the Wait has a partnership for evaluation with Baylor University. Dr. John F. Tanner has served as our evaluator since 1998. Pre and Post surveys are conducted each year with teens beginning in 7th grade. These teens then take the survey each year they are in the program. What we are finding is extraordinary! From the years 1998-2002, teen pregnancy decreased 53% in our county of longest origin, Gray County. In general, teens who have been in the Worth the Wait program two or more years were the least sexually active, followed by those in the program for one year. Those who had never had Worth the Wait were the most sexually active.  In addition, there is evidence that our abstinence education is also very effective among teens who are sexually active. Sexually active teens in the Worth the Wait program were three times more likely to visit a medical professional for sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment.
  

How is Worth the Wait funded?

• Two grants from the Texas Department of State Health Services
• Private Foundation
• Participating school districts
• Community Donations
  

What school districts currently implement Worth the Wait?

• Amarillo ISD
• Pampa ISD
• Highland Park ISD