Efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy for middle school student's unprotected sex: A randomized controlled trial / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of individualized cognitive behavioral therapy for unprotected sex and sexual attitude of middle school students having unprotected sex.Methods:A target sample of 68 adolescents having unprotected sex was recruited from 4 secondary schools in Changsha,Hunan [the unprotected sex (US) score of Health-Risk Behavior Inventory for Chinese Adolescents (HBICA) ≥ 1].Subjects were randomized assigned to cognitive behavioral therapy group (CBT group) and control group.Each group had 34 subjects.The CBT group was giving one-on-one counseling for 6 weeks (50 to 60 minutes weekly).The control group didn't receive intervention by counselors.The US and Attitudes Toward Sexuality Scale (ATSS) were selected as criterion measurements.Outcome assessments were made at baseline and at 1-and 3-month follow-up.Results:The reduction rate of US scores showed that the response rate of therapy was over 80％.Mixed linear model analysis showed that there were significant group effect,time effect and group × time effect in scores of US and ATSS (Ps ＜ 0.05).Simple effect analysis indicated that the scores of US and ATSS of CBT group were significant lower than those of baseline from 1-month follow-up [(2.2 ± 2.9) vs.(4.7 ± 3.1),(3.2 ± 1.6) vs.(4.7 ± 3.1);(38.2 ± 4.9) vs.(40.9 ±5.1),(37.2 ±5.4) vs.(40.9 ±5.1),Ps ＜0.01],whereas the scores of those in the control group did not show any significant difference (Ps ＞0.05).At l-month and 3 month follow-up,moderate effect sizes were found for the CBT and control groups on all the outcome measures (Cohen's d =0.50-0.70).Conclusion:The individualized cognitive behavioral therapy could effectively reduce the level of unprotected sex and sexual attitude of adolescents having unprotected sex.