Why Teach Healthy Relationship Skills Using Primary Prevention Strategies?

Every young person deserves access to accurate, evidence-based information that empowers them to make healthy choices and build a strong foundation for their future. They deserve the opportunity to protect themselves, avoid risky behaviors, and develop the skills needed to thrive—physically, emotionally, mentally, and economically.

Risk avoidance and risk cessation skills are essential ingredients in any effective positive youth development and life skills program. These skills help young people recognize and navigate potential dangers while building the confidence and competence to choose safer, healthier paths.

With support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—through collaboration with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB)—CYP proudly delivers a healthy relationships and life skills program to youth in Shasta County.

Our program is built on proven strategies that help youth succeed. Research shows that the following approaches lead to better long-term outcomes:

  • Teaching the individual and societal benefits of personal responsibility, self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision-making, and future planning

  • Emphasizing how refraining from non-marital sexual activity can support emotional and physical health, and open doors to greater opportunities

  • Equipping youth with the skills to achieve emotional maturity and self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity

  • Building an understanding of what makes relationships healthy, and how they contribute to strong marriages and stable families

  • Helping youth recognize how risk behaviors like drug and alcohol use can increase vulnerability to risky sexual behavior and negatively impact their future

  • Empowering young people to identify and avoid sexual coercion and dating violence, while understanding that teen sex—even with consent—is still considered a high-risk behavior

Our goal is to support youth with the tools they need to make informed, confident choices that lead to lifelong success.

Here are more reasons why primary prevention education for young people is essential.

Teens Are Making Healthier Choices — and Need Continued Support

According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report 2023 from the CDC, most high school students in the U.S. are making positive decisions:

  • 70% have never had sex

  • 79% are not currently sexually active

This encouraging data highlights the importance of continuing primary prevention education. Most teens are already on a healthy path—and they need consistent support and reinforcement to stay there. At the same time, the 30% who are engaging in sexual activity need targeted risk cessation education to reduce potential harm and build protective factors for a brighter, healthier future.

Federal Support for Risk Avoidance and Cessation

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), recognizes the importance of both Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) and Sexual Risk Cessation Education (SRCE).

SRAE is defined as:

“Education that teaches participants how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. SRAE programs also teach the benefits of self-regulation, success sequencing for poverty prevention, healthy relationships, goal setting, resisting sexual coercion, avoiding dating violence, and resisting other youth risk behaviors such as underage drinking and drug use.”
Source

Our Approach Supports and Enhances State-Mandated Education

In California, the Healthy Youth Act of 2016 requires that public schools provide sexual health education once in middle school and once in high school, using Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE), which focuses on sexual risk reduction.

Our work complements these efforts by teaching risk avoidance and risk cessation skills—providing students with a holistic approach to prevention. Our programs are medically accurate, culturally and linguistically appropriate, trauma-informed, and age appropriate.

Why This Matters: The Risks Facing Today’s Youth

Research shows today’s youth are vulnerable to a range of health and social risks:

  • Half of all newly diagnosed STIs are among youth ages 15–24 (CDC, 2018)

  • 1 in 4 sexually active teens will contract an STI

  • Teen sexual activity is linked to higher rates of pregnancy, poverty, lower academic success, and reduced future economic stability

  • Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are strongly correlated with early sexual behavior and teen pregnancy

  • Early sexual activity often sets patterns for future risk behaviors

  • Teens who are sexually active are more likely to also engage in drinking, smoking, and drug use

  • Sexual activity increases the risk of sexual abuse and victimization