WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A US program aimed at raising the self-esteem of inner-city children and keeping them off drugs and alcohol had the surprise effect of keeping them from having unprotected sex and getting pregnant, researchers said on Monday.

The benefits of the program, which targeted elementary school teachers and parents and not the children directly, lasted through the age of 21, researchers found.

"At age 21 what we found was that, overall, those kids in the project were engaged in less risky sexual behavior," David Hawkins, the study's leader and the director of the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group, said in a telephone interview.

"They were less likely to initiate sexual activity early and more likely to have a used a condom the last time they had intercourse," Hawkins said.

He and research analyst Heather Lonczak found that about 56% of young women in the same schools but not in the program had been pregnant by age 21, compared with 38% of young women whose teachers and parents took part in the program when they were in elementary school.

"Forty percent in the control group had actually given birth to a baby, compared to 23% of those in the full intervention," Hawkins said.

Writing in the May 14th issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Hawkins said he and Lonczak were following up on a 15-year study of 800 inner-city schoolchildren in Seattle who had been part of a complex program aimed at giving them better coping skills and an attachment to school and community.

"Our theory says if young people get this stronger commitment to schooling, a positive lifestyle, they are not going to jeopardize it with risky behavior," Hawkins stated. "Our study has found that (those in the program) had less history of violence in their lifetimes, less heavy use of alcohol and that fewer had multiple sex partners."

NO SEX EDUCATION--NOT EVEN ABSTINENCE

The last finding surprised them because their program does not include sex education of any kind.

During first and second grades, parents are coached on positive reinforcement. "The idea is to catch them being good," Hawkins said. "You reinforce and reward positive behavior rather than disciplining them when they are bad."

He said parents sometimes resisted. "Often parents would say 'What do you mean compliment if he does well? I expect him to do well but I will smack him if he doesn't,"' Hawkins said. "It is important for people to understand that positive reinforcement for effort really encourages more of that behavior."

Parents are also coached on taking a positive role in their children's schooling. "There are things parents can do, basic reading and math games," Hawkins said. "It includes learning how to be proactive in talking with the teacher, saying things like 'I want my child to do well at school--what can I do at home?"'

As the children become older, in the 5th and 6th grades, parents are taught how to help them stay away from drugs. "It's more than just say no," Hawkins said. "It's what we call refusal skills."

Teachers are taught ways to help children take a role in their own classroom discipline.

"For instance, the teacher asks her class if anyone likes being yelled at. No one raises their hand. So she asks for a signal that would substitute for yelling, like flashing the overhead projection light three times."

The children would know that signal means to become quiet. "Then they practice this, just like a lesson," Hawkins noted. The children have taken part in classroom discipline and are much more likely to comply, Hawkins said.

"It teaches children that they are competent, can succeed and can go on to college, get a job and have a future. This is not to say that sex education is not important. It is, and children need this kind of information," Lonczak said in a statement.

More information on the program is available commercially at http://www.channingbete.com.

Reference Source 89

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