IMPACT EVALUATION OF FACTS AND FEELINGS - A HOME-BASED VIDEO SEX-EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Families (N = 548) with a seventh- or eighth-grade adolescent were ran domly assigned to receive either a videotape sex education curriculum including the videos with mailed newsletters, the videotapes without n ewsletters, or neither (control group). Home visitors were present in the homes while parents and teens privately completed self-administere d surveys Just before, 3 months after, and 1 year after the materials were distributed. Treatment groups showed the largest increase, relati ve to the control group, in the frequency of parent-teen communication regarding sexual topics. Treatment effects subsided during the 9-mont h period between the posttest and delayed posttest, when the families no longer had access to the videotapes. No significant effect of the p rogram was observed on the key outcome variables of teens' sexual inte ntions or behaviors.