March 5, 2008Media Stories

Bill Would Issue Grants For Sex Ed
Hartford (CT) Courant, March 1, 2008

Jennifer Aniston “Saving Herself” for True Love
TransWorldNews, February 27, 2008

Risky Teen Behaviors Vary by Ethnicity
Charlotte (NC) Observer, February 27, 2008

Teens and Dating: Unreported Danger
Chicago Defender, February 27, 2008

Opinion: Abstinence's Silver Lining
The SMU (TX) Daily Campus, February 25, 2008

Prevalence of Genital Infection High in Young Pregnant Women
Medical News Today, February, 14, 2008

Marry Your Baby Daddy Day: Activist Marries Unwed Parents
The Christian Science Monitor, February 14, 2008

Get Real, Hollywood: Babies Are No Joke
The Washington Post, February 12, 2008

A Dangerous Transition: High School to the First Year of College
University of Buffalo, February 7, 2008

Funding Opportunities

The National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth maintains a listing of organizations identified as potential funding sources for abstinence education programs. The listing includes grant descriptions and contact information.

Partnerships in Character Education Program
This U.S. Department of Education grant funds the implementation of character education programs that can be integrated into classroom instruction. The programs must be consistent with State academic content standards. Priority is given to programs that are carried out in conjunction with other educational reform efforts.
Deadline for applications: March 31, 2008

Entertainment Software Association Foundation
The ESA Foundation supports programs and opportunities that make a difference in the quality of life, health, and welfare of youth. Specific projects or programs must serve youth, ages 7 to 18 in two or more States. Funds are awarded for projects that promote skills and personal development, general health and welfare, risk behavior prevention, and education.
Deadline for applications: April 15, 2008

Building Healthy Teen Relationships
This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative addresses teen dating and sexual violence prevention. The initiative supports the creation and evaluation of comprehensive community-based models of prevention that aim to decrease relationship violence and increase positive, protective relationship skills.
Deadline for applications: April 16, 2008

Recent Research

Alcohol-related Sexual Assault Victimization among Adolescents: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Correlates (January 2008) (Fee for entire article) – This article, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs [Volume 69 (1): 39-48], discusses the frequency and characteristics of alcohol-related sexual assault among middle and high school students. Findings showed that alcohol was involved in 12 to 20 percent of assault cases, depending on the age and gender of the respondent. For females, the presence of alcohol during assault differed significantly based on the location at which the assault occurred: 6 percent of assaults occurred at the survivor’s home and 29 percent occurred at parties or someone else’s home. Alcohol-related assaults among females were more likely to involve physical force than non-alcohol-related assaults.

Drinking and Abuse: Dangerous Transition from High School to College for Women (February 2008) (Fee for entire article) – In this article, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs [Volume 69 (1): 65-74], incoming freshmen women reported on their alcohol and drug use, psychological symptoms, number of sex partners, and experiences with physical and sexual victimization a year prior to enrolling and during the first 2 years of college. The study showed that women who drank alcohol during the first year of college were physically and sexually victimized more often than women who did not drink. A woman’s chances of being victimized increased with every precollege psychological symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression) and each precollege sexual partner.

Adolescents’ Sexual Inferences about Girls Who Consume Alcohol (2007) (Fee for entire article) – This study, in the Psychology of Women Quarterly [Volume 31 (3): 229-240], examines whether adolescents make character assumptions about high school girls who consume alcohol. The authors found that girls who consume alcohol are viewed as willing to partake in potentially dangerous situations. Further, they are held accountable for the outcome of the situations because they “should have known better.”

Other News/Misc.

Ways To Promote the Positive Development of Children and Youth (February 2008)
This research brief addresses the critical role that regular family dinners and organized after school programs can play in supporting and improving adolescent health and development.

Upcoming Events

Abstinence Education Grantees Regional Training
Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) grantees and State Title V Coordinators in Regions 5 through 7
April 2–3, 2008
Dallas, TX
Registration
Contact: abstinence@pal-tech.com

Abstinence Education Grantees Regional Training
CBAE grantees and State Title V Coordinators in Regions 8 through 10
May 14–15, 2008
Denver, CO
Registration
Contact: abstinence@pal-tech.com

Abstinence Education Grantees Regional Training
CBAE grantees and State Title V Coordinators in Regions 1 through 4
June 23–24, 2008
Philadelphia, PA
Registration
Contact: abstinence@pal-tech.com

Unequal Partners: Helping Teens Avoid, Change, or End Unhealthy Relationships
This free workshop from the Virginia Department of Health targets professionals who work with young people ages 10-17 in schools and communities in the State. Youth service professionals will learn about the dynamics, complexities, and risks of adult-teen relationships and how to help adolescents develop healthier relationships. Registration is required for the March 19, 2008, workshop in Charlottesville.

Spotlight

The Abstinence Education E-Update Spotlight has highlighted various topics, from new Federal staff to effective State programs. Now, NCFY will highlight two States a month, looking at each State’s legislation, policy, and specific State features related to abstinence education.

IOWA

What’s Interesting in the State of Iowa
Iowa provides abstinence-until-marriage education through curricula, mentoring, media campaigns, Positive Youth Development, informational programs, parent involvement workshops, and peer education. The Iowa Department of Public Health contracts with local agencies to provide scientifically based, medically accurate information to adolescents and adults ages 12 to 29, with emphasis on youth 12 to 18 years old. Iowa currently funds seven Title V grantees, as well as the University of Iowa, which is conducting a program evaluation. There are also two CBAE grantees in the State.

State Law in Iowa
Iowa mandates that health education be taught in kindergarten through twelfth grade. In first through sixth grade, “the health curriculum shall include the characteristics of communicable diseases, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome [AIDS].”

In seventh through twelfth grades, health instruction includes human sexuality, self-esteem, stress management, and interpersonal relationships; emotional and social health; health resources; and prevention and control of disease and the characteristics of communicable diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. (See Iowa Administrative Code 281-12.5.)

Iowa law allows school districts to teach age-appropriate, medically accurate, research-based comprehensive or abstinence-until-marriage sexuality education as part of the health curriculum.

Iowa law includes an “opt-out” policy that allows parents or guardians to remove their children from any health education coursework if it conflicts with the student’s religious beliefs. (See Iowa State Code (279.50) and (256.11.)

What’s Unique in the State of Iowa
The Iowa Department of Public Health’s iowa’s abstinence mission (i am) has developed many resources for teachers, parents, and students. The initiative created a service delivery map that shows all the counties in Iowa receiving abstinence education services. It also developed an abstinence education brochure for young people and a 12-minute educational video, “Choose Your Life,” for use in schools.

The initiative also commissioned a statewide media campaign utilizing specialized i am messages, such as “i am worth waiting for” and “i am strong enough to say no.” The Department of Public Health is a sponsor of the Iowa High School Sports Network (www.ihssn.com) and markets the i am message during State high school athletic championship tournaments. Iowa’s Title V grantees use i am graphics in their community outreach campaigns in an effort to increase statewide recognition of the message.

KANSAS

What’s Interesting in the State of Kansas
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) implements Title V programming through the Kansas Abstinence Education Program (KAEP). KAEP serves more than 9,000 youth, 3,000 parents, and hundreds of community groups every year. There are approximately nine Title V grantees, using various abstinence curricula and programs.

KAEP conducts a media campaign consisting of:

• providing promotional items with the "Abstinence Message" to local programs for distribution to students
• sponsoring the Web site www.gonnawait.org
• placing ads and publishing articles in the magazine "Family Matters," published by the Kansas Radio Network and distributed to schools and health departments across the State

There are also two CBAE grantees in the State.

State Law in Kansas
The Kansas Administration Regulation 91-31-32 requires, as a prerequisite for accreditation, that each school provide “physical education, which shall include instruction in health and human sexuality.” The State does not have a required or suggested curriculum. In the Kansas Model Curricular Standards for Health Education, each Board of Education must provide instruction about abstinence until marriage that is developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, and research-based. Factual information regarding contraception and disease prevention must also be provided.

The Health Education Standards Committee believes that parents should be involved in the health education of their children. Parents must give permission for students to participate in sexuality education. Parents are also encouraged to visit with their school’s health teachers about the topics that will be covered in class, and to talk with their children about these health issues.

What’s Unique in the State of Kansas
Pure and Simple, an abstinence Web site, offers programs for teens, young adults, and parents that teach the importance of abstinence in any healthy lifestyle. An abstinence center in Kansas City was also created to help young people develop self-esteem, character, and leadership skills. Abstinence training helps youth avoid teen pregnancy, delinquency, and truancy.

Quote of the Day

"At all ages we could benefit from a deeper understanding of how unplanned pregnancy can affect children. Leaving it out of the conversation is to everyone's detriment."

(Marisa Nightingale, senior director for media programs at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, The Washington Post, February 12, 2008)