Operationalizing Resilience-Building and Life Course Planning with Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents in California

Background:  The social and economic costs of adolescent pregnancy are well documented and include increased health care costs, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents, and poorer academic and employment outcomes.  California’s Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Program implemented a strengths-based, life-course approach to help youth set goals and develop problem solving skills related to contraception, healthy relationships, access to health care, and educational outcomes. The intervention focuses on building protective factors, which, in turn, enable youth to deal with challenges in their lives and communities and build successful relationships and careers.  

Methods:  Surveys, interviews, and focus groups were used by the University of California, San Francisco Evaluation Team to assess client and staff experiences with the intervention approach, its tools, and its early outcomes. A rapid feedback improvement loop was employed to improve the tools and resources and to pilot them with specific populations, including Spanish speakers and males.

Results and Conclusions:  Across all 10 sites, the resilience-building and life course approach was gauged to improve case management of pregnant and parenting adolescents. Work to standardize the intervention and trainings is presented along with the challenges of achieving standardization in client-centered programs. Additionally, factors that facilitate and inhibit implementation at the local sites are discussed. Early evaluation results from this ongoing study indicate that resilience-building and life-course approaches can be implemented in diverse communities and improve case management, as well as critical thinking skills in youth.