Among the debate over "what works" in teen pregnancy prevention, comprehensive community initiatives are emerging as a critical strategy for supporting healthy behaviors among youth. Contraceptive use by sexually active youth has largely contributed to the recent decline in teen pregnancy rates, but often encounters much oppositon when introduced as an essential component of prevention programs. This opposition can sometimes be overcome by a project like RRISK (Risk Reduction Involving Sexuality of Kids), a broad-based community initiative that embraces a full range of prevention strategies. This study explores the opportunity for schools and community partners to integrate health services into curricula and set the stage for improved health behaviors of youth who have limited access to contraceptives. It uses a randomized post-test only wait-list control design to evaluate the effects of school-board approved and supported tours of the health department. RRISK and the community employed the tours as a curriculum strategy to improve knowledge, attitudes, and intentions of sixth, eighth, and ninth graders regarding abstinence, contraceptives, school support for sexuality education, and health services. Preliminary findings show statistically significant differences in measures among participants compared to nonparticipants at p<.01. Investigators are examining the use of health services before and after tour administration to evaluate the intervention's effect on youth health seeking behaviors. This intervention is an example of a low cost and collaborative effort to promote youth access to health services, and illustrates where a community can start to integrate effective adolescent health services into pregnancy prevention programming.
Learning Objectives: 1. describe a curriculum innovation for integrating youth health services into pregnancy prevention programming 2. evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention to improve youth health-seeking behaviors and related antecedents 3. assess and explore the challenges related to contraceptive education that can be addressed by this community partnership strategy
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Partnerships
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.