Health Education Counsultation for schools, churches, and community organizations

Research Basis

Thanks for your interest in using Puberty: The Wonder Years curriculum to teach abstinence education.

The curriculum is based on the following research and best practice:

  1. Dr. Doug Kirby’s ten characteristics of effective sex education programs, “Emerging Answers,” 2001
  2. The Health Belief Model, University of Michigan
  3. Skills-Based Instruction strategy
  4. Social Learning Theory
  5. Promotion of parent-child communication and its impact on sexual activity

In 2007, Dr. Kirby expanded his research on characteristics of effective curriculum-based sex education programs in “Emerging Answers 2007.” Puberty: The Wonder Years has many of the characteristics of effective programs he identified. Characteristics 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 are strong. Characteristics 14-17 are the purview of the implementers.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know how you plan to implement your program. I have prepared student pre- and post-surveys to evaluate program outcomes. Please contact me if you would like me to send them to you. I am very interested in the results of your student evaluations, so please share your results with me when you have them.

Thank you for providing me with feedback!