Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106654

M. Christine Nagy, PhD and Stephen Nagy, PhD. Department of Public Health, Western Kentucky University, STH 307B, 1 Big Red Way, Bowling Green, KY 42101, 270-745-5854, chris.nagy@wku.edu

The Future Selves Program is a 60 hour intervention delivered over a three year period to students in rural Alabama schools. This adolescent pregnancy prevention program endorses a youth development approach with an emphasis on skill development coupled with an emphasis on school achievement. Activities were designed to enhance cognitive development and prevention approaches and address risky behaviors collectively. This presentation will describe the preliminary findings from the first 20 hours of the program delivered to grade six students. Evaluation utilized a quasi-experimental pretest posttest design with paired data (n=500). Two Future Selves intervention groups (students taught by program interventionists and students taught by classroom teachers) were compared to students who received teacher led standard programs approved by their school districts. Comparisons among the three student groups at impact examined measures addressing coital behaviors, coital intentions, norms supporting abstinence and social norms sustaining abstinence. Although findings at the end of the first 20 hours of the program showed few behavioral differences, MANOVA analyses showed a consistent pattern: comparison students showed increased risk on the measurement scales while intervention students did not show such increases. Behavioral and attitudinal data gathered at 3 months following the post test are being processed and will be showcased in the presentation. Preliminary findings support the use of a youth development approach for intervention in school settings addressing adolescent pregnancy prevention.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants in this session will able to

• Describe the theoretical framework that drives the Future Selves program.
• Recognize the associations between multiple antecedents and the initiation of coitus.
• Assess the effectiveness of the Future Selves program as an adolescent pregnancy prevention program.

Keywords: Teen Pregnancy Prevention, School Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commertial supporters WITH THE EXCEPTION OF This research was funded by a grant from the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention..