141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

282410
Youth outcomes for pregnant and parenting teens participating in cuídate


Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Jeffrey Desmarais, MA, Institute for Community Health, Cambridge, MA
Elisa Friedman, MS, Institute for Community Health, Cambridge, MA
Nazmim Bhuiya, MPH, Institute for Community Health, Cambridge, MA
Stephanie Campbell, MPH, Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, Boston, MA
Blessing Dube, MPH, Institute for Community Health, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge, MA
Erica Fletcher, EdM, Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, Boston, MA
Consuela Greene, Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, Boston, MA
Jessica A. Waggett, MPH, Council on Aging, Senior Community Center, City of Beverly, Beverly, MA
Teen pregnancy is an important public health issue. Within Massachusetts, some of the highest teen birth rates and racial/ethnic disparities in teen birth rates can be found in Holyoke and Springfield. Youth First (YF), a Massachusetts based teen pregnancy prevention initiative, seeks to ensure that youth, particularly high-risk populations, have access to evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs. Currently, only one evidence-based program (EBP) designed for pregnant and parenting teens exists. YF adapted the EBP Cuídate, a culturally-based program to reduce HIV sexual risk behavior among Latino youth, for use with pregnant and parenting teens.

As a part of YF, an outcomes evaluation was conducted with all youth who participated in the EBPs. YF's local evaluators, the Institute for Community Health, conducted pre- and post-surveys with participants to measure if participating in an EBP improved youth outcomes, such as sexual health knowledge, skills and intended behavior changes. Cuídate has been shown to be effective with Latino youth, however, it's effectiveness among pregnant and parenting teens has not been researched. These results provide a unique opportunity to assess the successes and challenges with using EBPs among high-risk populations. Additionally, the preliminary results will add to the field of TPP programming by assessing the effectiveness of using Cuídate with pregnant and parenting teens.

The shared data includes: 1) participant attendance and program fidelity data, and 2) changes in sexual health knowledge, attitudes and intended behaviors. The data can inform other organizations interested in implementing and evaluating TPP programs with similar populations.

Learning Areas:

Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the essential evaluation activities conducted in evaluating teen pregnancy prevention programs with high-risk populations, such as pregnant and parenting teens. List the measures used to evaluate the implementation of EBPs with pregnant and parenting teens.

Keyword(s): Reproductive Health, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an evaluator for Teen Pregnancy Prevention programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4374.0: Prevention of teen pregnancy