Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Baby Think It Over Abstinence-only Program Among Native American Teenagers

Native American teens have a birthrate nearly fifty percent greater than that of their non-Native peers. Recent research suggests that abstinence-only education delays the onset of sexual activity for younger students. The Native Challenge Abstinence Project is a community-based program by the Indian Health service that provides activities to help reduce future teen pregnancy among Native American youth. One of the after-school programs is the Baby Think It Over (BTIO) program, which allows students to experience some of the responsibilities of being a parent through their temporary care of a computerized infant simulator. However, recent experiences and student feedback indicated the need for a more expanded curricular than the one usually offered by BTIO. The purpose of this project was to redesign BTIO and evaluate the effectiveness of the revised program. Three key informant interviews and one focus group discussion with community leaders, program facilitators and BTIO participants were used to assess improvements needed for the program. After suggested changes were manualized in a curriculum, we developed pre and post tests and conducted a pilot test to get participant feedback about the expanded BTIO program. In addition, we debriefed participants and their parents to share their experiences with the pilot program. Subsequent feedback was incorporated in a culturally contextualized curriculum before we used the new curriculum as a regular part of our overall program approach. Pilot study results and quantitative program evaluations of the first few cohorts will be presented including attendance sheets, pre/post tests, surveys, assignments and simulation scores.