Recorded presentation

Melanie Ridley, BS¹, Pamela Kitagawa, LCCE², Bess Leggett¹, and Anne Marie Guzman, BS³. (1) EPA Division, California Family Health Council, Inc., 492 Division Street, Campbell, CA 95008, (408) 374-3720, ridleym@cfhc.org, (2) EPA Division, California Family Health Council, 492 Division Street, Campbell, CA 95008, (3) SRI International, 333 Ravenwood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Unintended teen pregnancy is a significant public health issue in this country. One adult can make a significant difference in the life and choices of a teen. Yet, there are few opportunities for adults to develop the skills and knowledge necessary for this role. As adults, it is easy to forget what life was like as an adolescent. As a result, we create unrealistic expectations for young people today.

Reducing Teen Pregnancy: Helping Teens Make Healthy Decisions is a training program designed to impact and influence adult attitudes and behaviors. It helps adults reconnect with and learn from their own adolescent experiences, learn to focus on adolescents' resiliency while addressing risk, and develop the communication skills needed to help teens prevent unintended pregnancies. Although this is a difficult task to accomplish, this training program has proven to be effective.

The program has trained over 2,300 adults throughout California. Participants come from different professional backgrounds including health care, social service, and education. Pre-tests and 6-month post-tests have shown statistically significant changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior with regard to sexual activity of adolescents. Behavioral changes include greater comfort in answering teen’s questions about sex, increased use of reflective listening, improved communication with teens of different sexual orientations, and feelings of increased capability to help teens develop assertiveness and refusal skills. Evaluation results will be shared and training activities will be modeled.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify at least two training models and activities that effectively impact behavior and attitudes.
• Describe three training activities and/or techniques that promote participant self-evaluation.
• List three key concepts of a best practice in teen pregnancy prevention.

Keywords: Training, Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Related Web page: www.epahealth.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.

Recorded presentation