Guy Talk is a gender-specific intervention for early adolescent males. The program focuses on developing and maintaining meaningful relationships and making informed choices about family options and relationships. Guy Talk promotes competencies that specially equip young male adolescents and address a range of risk factors including factors associated with sexual risk behaviours. The program is based on a research-based, developmentally appropriate, skill-building curriculum tailored to the gender-specific concerns of adolescent males.
Guy Talk is designed for male youth aged 14-17. Participants were an average of 14 years old. The majority of both the intervention group and control groups were Hispanic/Latino (74.4% and 69.9% respectively). Guy Talk has only been evaluated in the USA. A randomized control trial (LeCroy et al., 2021) was conducted with 405 participants (222 in the intervention group and 183 in the control group).
Guy Talk has not been evaluated in Australia or with Aboriginal Australians.
Overall, Guy Talk had a mixed effect on client outcomes.
Mixed research evidence (with no adverse effects):
Guy Talk is delivered for a total of 10 hours in high schools, youth clubs or social service sites.
Groups comprise 10-15 participants and are led by a trained adult male facilitator. The program includes interactive lessons, small and large group discussions, small group practice and individual and paired activities.
8 sessions include the following content:
The costs for Guy Talk were not reported in the study.
1 RCT conducted in the USA with 405 participants (LeCroy et al., 2021).
LeCroy, CW, Milligan-LeCroy, S, & Lopez, D 2021, ‘Guy talk: a gender-specific sexual education program to reduce sexual risk behaviors with high school males’, Health Education & Behavior, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/10901981211010441
The following studies are particularly relevant to the program:
Guy Talk is similar to ‘Wise Guys’ for younger males. ‘Wise Guys’ has been evaluated by Gruchow & Brown:
Gruchow, HW, & Brown, RK 2011, ‘Evaluation of the Wise Guys male responsibility curriculum: Participant-control comparisons’, Journal of School Health, vol. 81, pp. 152–158, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00574.x
The Guy Talk program curriculum includes key components of the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education developed by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States:
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States 2004, The Guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education, 3rd edn, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Washington, D.C., https://siecus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Guidelines-CSE.pdf
09 Dec 2022
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