• Full Report
• Call to Action and Executive Summary

Teen birth, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates in the United States are higher than in most other industrialized countries. For the last two decades, U.S. public health experts have worked to address these problems. One such effort, sponsored by Advocates for Youth and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is the Summer Institute, a six-credit graduate course about adolescent sexuality. In 1998, the Institute initiated an international fact-finding mission to the Netherlands, Germany, and France to explore how these European nations have achieved successful adolescent sexual health indicators. In each country, the participants conducted qualitative, critical analyses of issues which research demonstrates to have an impact on adolescent reproductive and sexual health attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes. This report shares the group’s findings and suggests a course of action toward improving adolescent reproductive and sexual health in the United States.

Life Planning Education: A Youth Development Program (Education Program) (Order publication - $60.00)

• Adolescência Administrando o Futuro - (Order publication - $54.00)
  
• Cómo Planear Mi Vida - (Order publication - $54.00)
  

Advocates for Youth's popular family life education program includes chapters on sexuality, relationships, health, violence prevention, and community responsibility as well as chapters on skills-building, values, self-esteem, parenting, employment preparation, and reducing sexual risk. Packed with interactive exercises, supplemental leaders' resources, participant handouts, and a complete guide to implementation, this resource is appropriate for use in schools and other settings for sexuality/life skills education, HIV prevention education, and pregnancy prevention. For use with youth ages 13-18.

Life Skills Approaches to Improving Youth's Sexual and Reproductive Health (Issues at a Glance) (available online only)
Research demonstrates that possessing life skills may be critical to young people's ability to positively adapt to and deal with the demands and challenges of life. Some programs effectively teach and promote life skills. This paper briefly reviews some of these programs and presents lessons learned from the life skills approach to HIV prevention education. These lessons are also applicable to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health programs for youth.

Resource Guide for Sex Educators: Basic Resources that Every Sex Educator Needs to Know About (available online only)
Whether you are someone new to the field of sex education, trying to start a library or resource center on adolescent sexual health, or an old pro, the following guide should give you a basic orientation to what’s available to support your work. These resources are important to advancing positive attitudes toward adolescent sexual health.

Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act (The Facts) (available online only)
The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would provide federal money to support responsible sex education in schools. This education would include science-based, medically accurate, and age appropriate public health information about both abstinence and contraception. This fact sheet outlines the need for the REAL Act and explains its provisions.

Science and Success in Developing Countries: Holistic Programs That Work to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, HIV & Sexually Transmitted Infections (Report)

• Full Study
  
• Executive Summary
  

Youth in developing countries face significant threats to their health and well-being—threats that include the HIV and AIDS pandemic, high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancies that may result in maternal morbidity and/or mortality. Given the need to focus limited prevention resources on effective programs, Advocates for Youth undertook an exhaustive review to find programs proven effective by rigorous evaluation and identified the 10 highly effective programs highlighted in this document.

Science and Success, Second Edition: Sex Education and Other Programs That Work to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, HIV & Sexually Transmitted Infections (Report) (Order publication - $15.00)

• Full Study
• Executive Summary

Given the need to focus limited prevention resources on effective programs, Advocates for Youth undertook exhaustive reviews of existing research to compile a list of those programs proven effective by rigorous evaluation. Nineteen programs appeared in Science and Success when it was first published in 2003; seven additional programs are included in Science and Success, Second Edition. This document describes each of the programs and provides information about replicating them in your school, community, or health center.

Science-Based Practices in Teen Pregnancy and HIV/STI Prevention: Selected Annotated Bibliography (From Research to Practice) (available online only)
This bibliography provides a selected list of publications and other resources around science-based practices in preventing teen pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). All selected publications and resources are available free online.

Sex Education for Physically, Emotionally, and Mentally Challenged Youth (From Research to Practice) (available online only)
This summary addresses sex education for youth who live with physical and/or mental disabilities. Beginning with a few statistics on disability among American youth and an overview of common myths and facts about the sexuality of people living with disabilities, the document also provides general guidelines for parents of physically or mentally challenged children and youth and offers a select, annotated bibliography of sex education materials and resources.

The Librarian's Guide To Sex Education Resources (available online only)
Librarians can help young people and their parents to answer their questions about sex, sexuality, and human development by offering a safe and welcoming environment in which they can research and obtain accurate, age appropriate, sexual health materials. This manual provides guidance to culturally competent, accurate sexual health resources and tips and guidance toward making the library a welcoming and supportive environment for those seeking this information.

The Truth About Abstinence-Only Programs (The Facts) (available online only)
Accurate, balanced sex education helps young people to reduce their risk of potentially negative outcomes, such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Yet, federal policy makers have provided large amounts of funding for abstinence-only education. This document explores some of the claims that have been put forward to support federal funding for abstinence-only education rather than for comprehensive sex education.

There's No Place Like Home … for Sex Education (Education Program) (available online only)
No hay lugar como el hogar … para la educación sexual (available online only)
There's No Place Like Home … consists of reproducible parent newsletters to assist you in your unique role as the primary sexuality educator of your child. Five newsletters are available for every age/grade level, pre-school through grade twelve. Each issue contains relevant, age-specific sexuality information, useful strategies, communication hints, and suggested resources to support you in your efforts.

Teens & Sex in Europe: A Story of Rights, Respect & Responsibility (Video) (Order video - Individual: $49.95, Institutional: $79.95)
This video, narrated by Mariette Hartley, provides a fascinating glimpse into the sexual health attitudes of Dutch, German, and French teens and their parents and into the attitudes of government officials, educators, and health care providers. European and U.S. teens speak their minds about protecting themselves within sexual relationships.  All of this is against a background of funny, frank media clips drawn from larger multimedia campaigns to reduce HIV infections and unintended pregnancy.