Translating abstinence education theory into practice: A case study of the implementation challenges of operationalizing logic models in federal demonstration projects

Author： Sutherland Marcia

Publisher： Routledge Ltd

ISSN： 1469-9389

Source： Journal of Children and Poverty, Vol.17, Iss.1, 2011-03, pp. : 25-43

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Abstract

Federally financed programs designed to address social ills, including unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and substance abuse, among other health concerns, increasingly have been required to anchor their design in an underlying theory and research base, and their evaluation in methodologically rigorous, outcomes-based approaches. These approaches have included experimental design, randomization, and power analysis. At the same time, the implementation of federally financed programs increasingly has moved from government offices to small, nonprofit community agencies, and more and more has been based in public schools. This article focuses precisely on the challenges to faithful program implementation posed by the peculiarities of the school setting and by the limited capacities of most community agencies, as reflected in the case of one federal demonstration project, the Family Life Abstinence Program (FLAP). We begin with a brief description of the FLAP federal demonstration project, which focuses on promoting teenage sexual abstinence before marriage. We then describe the challenges in implementing this program. Next we proceed to draw on the available implementation literature to explain these challenges in terms of the characteristics of schools and community agencies as organizations. We conclude with suggestions for offsetting the impediments we have identified.