Pre-test and post-test attitude assessments of the "Choosing the Best" abstinence curriculum demonstrate a positive change in students' attitudes, particularly among non-virgins.

• "Choosing the Best" is a school-based program that attempts to teach the health benefits of delaying or abstaining from sexual activity during the teenage years. 3,840 Illinois students participating in the "Choosing the Best" abstinence curriculum were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward sex both before and after the program. Students were identified as most at risk of engaging in sex if they: 1) did not have two parents in the home; 2) perceived their parents approved of teen sex; 3) smoked; or 4) had been drunk. Not having two parents in the home more than doubled the risk of the student having had sex, and when the student believed that their parents approve of teens having sex, they were more than 2.5 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse than students who think their parents would not approve of such activity. Additionally, students who smoke were more than 4 times more likely to have sex than non-smokers and students that had been drunk once before were more than 5.5 times more likely to have had sex than those students who had never been drunk. Results showed that after completion of the program, non-virgins changed their attitudes even more than did virgins. Overall, more than 75% of students had reliable positive changes toward more-abstinent attitudes.¹

¹Vessey, John T., Choosing the Best Abstinence Curriculum: Evaluation Studies Abstinence Evaluation Report 1994-95, Illinois Department of Public Aid.

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