Scheduled for AAHE Research Coordinating Board: Student Poster Session, Friday, April 11, 2008, 8:45 AM - 10:15 AM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall, National Association Poster Sessions


Importance of Youth Participatory Evaluation of College Sex Education Programs

Jennifer M. Lehmbeck, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Checkoway and Richard-Schuster define participatory evaluation as, “a process in which people join together and develop knowledge for action and change.” (p.4). It is a form of evaluation that has evolved over the course of the past decade, influenced by the fields of positive youth development, community development action research, and participatory evaluation (Goodyear, 2003). Youth participatory evaluation is a method which engages young people in the process of evaluation (Randolph & Eronen, 2007; Penuel & Freeman, 1997). In youth participatory evaluation, young people select the agencies or programs to be evaluated. They then determine the evaluation questions and most effect method of data collection. Finally the youth create solutions to address the deficiencies discovered (Randolph & Eronen, 2007; Checkoway, Dobbie, & Richard-Schuster, 2003, Delgado, p.127). By using this method of evaluation for sex education programs, college students are able to address the strategies and assumptions of their previous sex education experiences (Monroe et at., 2005). This information will allow students to identify where their sex educational experiences have failed them. Once those flaws have been identified students can address the issues in more comprehensive way. They are able to create new programs that will specifically address their sex education needs. By basing sex education research on the frameworks of positive youth development and community youth development and utilizing youth participatory evaluation, this will set the stage for new sex education programs that are more effective than sex education programs which have been traditionally created and evaluated by campus health educators.
Keyword(s): college level issues, health promotion

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