You Gotta Have Faith!: An Ethnographic Study of Faith-Based Workers Influence on Adolescent Sexual Health

The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute in collaboration with Sisters Together and Reaching, Inc. (STAR) was awarded an NIH Grant (R21) to better understand the influence on adolescents of youth ministers within African American churches located in low income, urban communities with disproportionately high rates of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and STD infections. This study is the first of its kind to rigorously explore the impact of faith-based youth ministers and youth workers on adolescent sexual and reproductive health behaviors. In reality, the faith-based community is much more dynamic in terms of influence than past public health research focusing primarily on pastors as the primary influencers suggests. More specifically, a lack of understanding of the influence of youth ministers may explain in part the limitations of past attempts to intervene with adolescents at risk for pregnancy, HIV and STIs especially within the lowest income communities of the United States where the Black Church has its greatest influence.

Preliminary data indicated that in the 10 neighborhoods with the worse teen pregnancy outcomes in Baltimore, there are approximately 400 faith-based organizations in these same communities with varying degrees of protective strategies for young people. Moreover, we examined several social determinants of teen pregnancy, including socio-economic factors, as well as violence, neglect, and abuse dynamics that may influence rates of teen pregnancy. This study has the potential to contribute to the development of more effective sexual and reproductive health promoting strategies engaging those within the faith community who most directly work with young people.