$2.93 million Grant Aims to Increase Adoption and Implementation of Sexual Health EBPs in Texas Schools through Web-based Implementation Strategy

Investigators at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health have been awarded $2.93 million by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to evaluate iCHAMPSS 2.0, a first-of-its-kind web-based implementation strategy designed to help schools adopt, implement, and maintain evidence-based programs (EBPs) to improve adolescent sexual health.

“iCHAMPSS 2.0 has the potential to increase the adoption and implementation of sexual health EBPs in South Texas schools,” said Belinda Hernandez, PhD, principal investigator on the study. “In doing so, we can reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescents and, ultimately, teen births, improving teenage sexual health outcomes in Texas.”

Although U.S. teen birth rates are in steady decline, teen pregnancy continues to be a public health problem. This is especially true in Texas, which is the eighth highest ranked state in teen birth rates and has the third highest percentage of repeat teen births. South Texas in particular has teen birth rates as high as 64 per 1,000 females ages 15-19.

Despite these issues, fewer teens now receive any sort of sexual health information in Texas schools than in the past. Sexual health EBPs have been shown to reduce the risky teenage sexual behaviors that can lead to unintended pregnancies and other adverse sexual health outcomes, but they are not widely implemented in schools.

This new study aims to address this critical need for increased adoption and implementation of sexual health EBPs in Texas schools. iCHAMPSS 2.0 (CHoosing And Maintaining Effective Programs for Sex Education in Schools) is an innovative, theory-based implementation strategy designed to increase knowledge and skills among school-based and district-wide decision-makers, enabling effective adoption, implementation, and maintenance of sexual health EBPs. The original iCHAMPSS model was piloted in 2014, and iCHAMPSS 2.0 builds on the research team’s decades of experience working with Texas school districts to implement sexual health EBPs.

Researchers aim to test CHAMPSS 2.0’s impact on the adoption, implementation, reach, and maintenance of sexual health EBPs in schools through a trial in 15 South Texas school districts. They will also look at sexual health EBP determinants and monitor implementation, reach, dosage, barriers, and facilitators to implementation. By thoroughly evaluating iCHAMPSS 2.0's effectiveness, researchers hope to enable widespread scale-up of sexual health EBPs across Texas schools meet the current demand from school districts for sexual health EBPs and give thousands of Texas youth access to critical sexual health information.