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A just-for-girls sexual education curriculum taught in Waterloo, Ont., schools appears to be having a positive effect on teens' sexual health knowledge.

An evaluation of the Girl Time: Grade 7/8 Healthy Sexuality Program released in yesterday's edition of The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality found that students who had taken the course were more likely than non-participants to gain sexual health knowledge, discuss sex with their parents, feel confident in their ability to enact a variety of safer behaviours such as buying condoms and say they intended to engage in safe sex practices.

"We're pretty excited by the findings," said Karen Quigley, of the Region of Waterloo Public Health department, which offers the course. "I think the real advantage is the parents and the girls talking."

The Girl Time curriculum focuses on girls deciding whether they are ready to have sex, using a condom if intercourse occurs, telling a boyfriend they will not have sex and telling a boyfriend to use a condom.

Many sex educators believe that girls and boys need different types of intervention to help them make healthy decisions. Other studies have found that programs that do not address gender roles and peer influences relative to sexual activity tend to be ineffective for girls, even if they have an impact on boys.

The Waterloo region also offers a boys program for Grades 7 and 8 called Boys to Men.