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J Sch Health. 2018 Aug;88(8):549-559. doi: 10.1111/josh.12642.
Teen Prevention Education Program (PEP) is a school-wide, peer-led comprehensive sexuality education program currently implemented in more than 50 schools across 2 states. Many teen pregnancy prevention researchers and practitioners view peer-led programs as a promising approach for reducing teen pregnancy and associated sexual risk behaviors. However, prior research on the effectiveness of these programs indicates mixed results.
We randomly assigned schools to implement Teen PEP immediately (intervention group) or on a delayed schedule (comparison group) and used propensity score matching to improve the comparability of the study groups. We surveyed students at baseline and about 6 months after the program ended.
Teen PEP did not significantly impact rates of sexual activity or unprotected sex; however, the program led to improvements in exposure to information about sexual health topics and knowledge of preventing pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted infections.
Teen PEP succeeded in accomplishing some of its most proximal goals, increasing students' access to information and knowledge. However, we found little evidence that the program affects sexual risk-taking within 6 months of its conclusion. Future research will examine the program's longer-term impacts on sexual risk behaviors.
青少年预防教育计划（PEP）是一个在 2 个州的 50 多所学校中实施的全校范围的、由同龄人领导的综合性性教育计划。许多青少年怀孕预防研究人员和实践者认为，同伴领导的项目是减少青少年怀孕和相关性行为风险的有前途的方法。然而，先前关于这些项目有效性的研究结果喜忧参半。
我们随机将学校分配为立即实施青少年 PEP（干预组）或延迟实施（对照组），并使用倾向评分匹配来提高研究组的可比性。我们在项目结束前和大约 6 个月后对学生进行了调查。
青少年 PEP 并没有显著影响性行为或无保护性行为的发生率；但是，该项目提高了学生对性健康主题信息的接触和预防怀孕和性传播感染传播的知识。
青少年 PEP 在实现其一些最接近的目标方面取得了成功，增加了学生获得信息和知识的机会。然而，我们几乎没有证据表明该项目在项目结束后的 6 个月内会影响性行为风险。未来的研究将探讨该项目对性行为风险的长期影响。
