Interventions to reduce sexual risk behaviors among youth in alternative schools: a randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: This paper presents results from a randomized controlled trial that assessed the short- and longer-term impact of a skills-based HIV/STI/pregnancy prevention curriculum, service learning, and the combination.

Methods: The study featured a four-arm experimental design involving 47 classrooms (765 youth) from continuation high schools. Classrooms were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) HIV/STI/pregnancy prevention curriculum only; (2) service learning only; (3) HIV/STI/pregnancy prevention curriculum plus service learning; or (4) an attention control curriculum.