Evaluating 'Baby Think It Over' infant simulators: a comparison group study.

J.E. Barnett, Adolescence, v.41, n.161, 2006, pp.103-10.

Undertaken as part of an evaluation of an abstinence-only sex education program used by schools in Northwest Missouri, USA, this study evaluated the efficacy of the 'Baby Think It Over' (BTIO) infant simulator as a key component of the three-week program. Forty-nine tenth-grade students from three schools were given the simulator as part of the program, while the same number of students from two comparison schools completed the program without using the simulator. All students completed identical surveys before and after participating in the program. Surveys measured parent-adolescent communication, students' attitudes towards teenage sexuality, their knowledge about sex and their involvement in specific sexual behaviours. No significant differences in survey measures were identified between the two groups either before or after participation in the program. Despite the fact that the evaluation instrument used in the survey did not measure outcomes directly related to the BTIO simulator, results indicated that the simulator had little effect on the efficacy of the program, bringing into question the efficacy of the simulator itself.