Communication skills to help adolescents prevent pregnancy (expanded study)
Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Scientist(s):
John Noell, PhD
,
Lynne Swartz, MPH, CHES
,
Dennis Ary, PhD
The United States has the highest teen birth rate of all the industrialized nations. Children of teen mothers suffer a greater likelihood of low birth weight, child abuse, and a life of poverty. The moms themselves struggle with lack of education (having to quit school early), unemployment, poverty, and substance abuse. Typically the fathers are five or more years older, and the relationships very often do not last.
While abstinence is the only failsafe method of contraception, research has shown that relatively few young women can be motivated to cease sexual activity for long periods of time once they have become sexually experienced. The challenge, therefore, in high school health education is to encourage the sexually inexperienced to postpone intercourse while promoting the use of effective contraception for those who are already sexually active.
To better understand how to do this, the Oregon Center for Applied Science, Inc., conducted focus groups with 300 male and female adolescents of African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian descent. Along with results of a literature review, these focus groups served as the foundation for a series of four video tapes: Perspectives on Abstinence, Taking Care of Business (educating about contraception), What Do You Say? Talking About Protection (communication skills), and Teen Pregnancies? The Role of the Older Guy (discussing the risks of power-inequitable relationships). Each tape includes teens discussing the issues as well as narration by adult authority figures (teachers or healthcare providers). Animations demonstrate contraceptive methods, and video dramatizations model effective communication skills and the consequences (sometimes dramatic) of making unwise choices. Each video tape is embedded with thought-provoking questions that spark discussion or that can be used for essay or expository writing.
This series of video tapes was evaluated in a randomized control trial with 366 high school students as part of their health or parenting education classes. All participants began by answering a series of questions concerning their knowledge about contraception and communication skills as well as their attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and self confidence concerning matters of abstinence, protection, and communication. Half of the student group watched the video tape series, and the other half received their standard health or parenting education instruction. To measure long-term effects, 30 days after answering the first set of questions both groups of students were asked the same series of questions again.
Those who saw the program about abstinence felt significantly more confident in their ability to remain abstinent until marriage. The contraceptive fact program clearly increased basic knowledge about contraception, and more importantly, caused viewers to report a greater likelihood that they would use contraception if they were going to be sexually active. The communication program successfully addressed the critical issue of talking about sex and contraception, and the program about older males increased student understanding of the risks involved with age discrepant relationships.
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