P3.018: Let’s Talk About Sex: Assessing the Impact of an 8-week Comprehensive Sexual Health Curriculum on Teenage Youth in Washington D.C. in Teen Promise Project

Background: Comprehensive sexual health programs are effective in promoting healthy behaviors for adolescents, preventing pregnancy, and decreasing STI rates (Kohler, 2008). Our curriculum, Teen Promise Project (TPP), was created by medical students to teach middle school students in Washington, DC comprehensive sexual health education. Understanding our impact through evaluation will allow us to expand this pilot program as a model for sexual health education.

Methods: Student participants completed self-assessment surveys pre- and post- course. Data was transcribed in RedCap; basic statistical analyses were used to assess initial impact. Surveys were designed to specifically target each lesson (e.g., Puberty & Anatomy, STIs, Healthy Relationships, Gender & Sexual Identities, Sexual Activities, Pregnancy Awareness, and Contraception) to pinpoint whether our message is being communicated effectively.

Results: In this cohort of 57 students over 2 semesters in three middle schools (one charter, two public), the mean age of participants was 12.09, with an SD of 1.12. 39 (68.4%) identified as female, 16 (28.1%) as male, 2 (3.5%) as non-binary, and 1 (1.8%) did not identify with a gender. 42 (77.8%) identified as Black, 9 (16.7%) as White, 1 (1.9%) as Native American, 5 (9.3%) as Latino/a/x, and 5 (9.3%) as Other. The topic with the greatest pre-test knowledge was “Gender and Sexual Identity”, with 70.7% of students reported a perceived baseline of knowing “a lot” or “everything”. The topic with the least pre-test knowledge was “Sexual Activities” at 26.0%, which importantly had the largest growth posttest to 51.8%. The lowest posttest knowledge was in "Pregnancy Awareness" at 46.5%. Importantly, there was a statistically significant increase in students reporting they knew “a lot” or “everything” about all curricula topics pre- and posttest with a p-value of 0.039. Commonly cited topics that participants self-reported as most important to their learning included avoiding sexual disease and staying safe during sex.

Conclusion: Student self-ranking of "no" or "very little" knowledge decreased for each category and increased significantly in "a lot" or "everything", demonstrating our curriculum was an effective first-pass of this material. Students began the curriculum with strong foundational knowledge in gender and sexual identity. However, they lacked initial knowledge regarding sexual activities, which can serve to guide provider interactions with young adolescents to center education and resources around safe sex practices, birth control, and pregnancy expectations.