I am sure we all have our own funny stories about sex ed class. But they really aren't so funny when we think about the fact that many of us got our (mis)information about the birds and bees from halted conversations with our parents, from gossiping with our friends, or from reading the bathroom wall.
|
Teen Parents and Abstinence Education: Research Findings 2003
Contributing Organization(s): Center for Law and Social Policy
Publication date: 2003-12-13
| Complete listing and access info | Download
Research Findings: 2003 is designed as a reference tool for practitioners, policymakers, and others interested in teen parents (and particularly their relationship to welfare programs) and abstinence education. Research Findings: 2003 pulls together research that focuses specifically on these topics, as well as selected broader studies that include findings on teen parents or abstinence education. Not included in this listing is the wealth of research on the broad topic of teen pregnancy prevention, except as it relates to welfare. The following summaries are drawn directly from or paraphrase the research papers themselves. This compilation does not evaluate the validity of the studies or their methodology. Each summary includes a link to a web posting of the full research report, article, or presentation or the e-mail address of one of the researchers. Readers are encouraged to contact CLASP (jodie@clasp.org and cgrisham@clasp.org) with suggestions for research released in 2003 that should be included in this summary. We also encourage researchers and others to send us research that might be included in Research Findings: 2004. Complete listing and access info » |
|
Teen Risk-Taking: Promising Prevention Programs and Approaches
Contributing Organization(s): Urban Institute
Publication date: 2000-10-11
| Complete listing and access info | Download
To help close the knowledge gap and to help program directors, practitioners, and community leaders enlarge the network of effective programs and approaches for at-risk youth, Urban Institute researchers reviewed what is known about successful prevention interventions and their dissemination. They identified 51 problem behavior prevention interventions whose initial effectiveness has been demonstrated through scientific evaluation. A subset of 21 programs was selected on the basis of the rigor of their evaluations or the strength of their results for closer examination of the program elements and/or delivery modes that appeared to be associated with their effectiveness. The researchers also explored with the assistance of experienced prevention scientists and school-based practitioners what might be the essential elements of schools' and other community organizations' readiness to undertake research-based problem behavior prevention programming.
This guidebook to promising programs and approaches offers the fruits of that research. It is our hope that it will provide a helpful starting point for the development of a larger, more sustainable network of effective prevention programs and approaches for at-risk teens. In the booklet you will find:
- An Update on Adolescent Risk-Taking -- what is known about the level and characteristics of teen risk-taking today and why it is both necessary and an opportune time to improve and expand the network of effective prevention programs for at-risk preteens and teens.
- The Common Elements of Successful Prevention Programs, briefly summarized, along with an explanation of the criteria used to select the 51 programs profiled in this guidebook.
- Moving from Research to Practice -- a discussion of the challenges facing practitioners seeking to replicate promising intervention programs or approaches, with some suggestions for ways to meet these challenges.
- A Prevention Readiness Questionnaire to help program directors and planners identify and assess factors necessary to create favorable conditions and circumstances for successful adaptation or replication of the programs or their salient components in new settings.
- Profiles of 51 Prevention Programs whose behavioral evaluations demonstrate their effectiveness. The profiles provide general information about the program, highlight unique features, summarize evaluation results, and give general contact information. The 21 (most) rigorously evaluated programs also have curriculum, training, and contact information included.
- A Handy Reference Chart for quick comparison of the 51 programs.
Complete listing and access info » |
|
To Have and To Hold: Congressional Vows on Marriage and Sex
Contributing Organization(s): Center for Law and Social Policy
Publication date: 2005-03-15
| Complete listing and access info | Download
This article discusses what the government has already done to promote abstinence-unless-married programs and marriage, and what it proposes to do with the reauthorization of the welfare law. The article then discusses the relationship between marriage and pregnancy prevention, including research findings on the influence of childbearing on marriage. It then concludes with some recommendations on what Congress could do in the reauthorization of PRWORA to ensure that funding for abstinence-unless-married programs and marriage promotion truly meet the needs of the populations for which it is intended. Complete listing and access info » |
|
Unique Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Youth
Contributing Organization(s): Healthy Teen Network
Publication date: 2008-10-01
| Complete listing and access info | Download
With this resource guide, Healthy Teen Network intends to draw attention to the unique sexual, reproductive and parenting needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning youth; add to the voices calling for a shift in our thinking about them; and call for parity in education, services and supports for LGBTQ individuals. Complete listing and access info » |
|
An Update to State Policy Initiatives to Reduce Teen and Adult Nonmarital Childbearing
Contributing Organization(s): Urban Institute
Publication date: 2004-08-01
| Complete listing and access info | Download
Despite a sharp and continuing decline in the rate of teen childbearing and a leveling off in the rate of nonmarital childbearing, the U.S. teen childbearing rate remains high compared with other industrialized nations, while nonmarital childbearing rates are in the mid-range of industrialized countries (Doyle 2002). Both teen and nonmarital childbearing are associated with negative outcomes for mother and child (Maynard 1996; DHHS 1995; Seltzer 2000). These forms of childbearing also bring with them substantial costs to society; the cost of the welfare system is a source of particular concern (Maynard 1996; Moore and Wertheimer 1984). Childbearing by young and unmarried women continues to concern health practitioners, educators, the media, and the public. Indeed, the federal welfare law includes provisions to offer states incentives to discourage teen and nonmarital childbearing.
While the period of decline in teen childbearing and the leveling off in nonmarital childbearing rates has coincided with the implementation of welfare waivers and a reformed welfare system, many other factors beside welfare rules may have played a role. They include the following:
- The vigorous economic expansion, which drew to a close in 2000;
- The expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit;
- An emerging consensus that mothers with nonmarital births should work to help support their child;
- Increased use of new methods of contraception, especially Depo-Provera and Norplant(R);
- Increased education about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases;
- A focus on males as well as females for policies affecting reproductive behavior;
- Increased focus on child support enforcement; and
- A rise in conservative attitudes toward premarital sex.
Child Trends conducted a survey in 2001 of all 50 states to learn how specific state policies and programs to discourage teen and nonmarital childbearing have changed since the 1999 and 1997 surveys. We summarize our findings after we review the trends in teen and nonmarital childbearing. Complete listing and access info » |
Available for your listening pleasure: a podcast on the issue of adolescents and reproductive health. Stacy Kessler, IssueLab's Collections Assistant, chatted with Laura Lindberg, Senior Research Associate at the Guttmacher Institute about the role of nonprofit research in the debate about comprehensive sex ed and abstinence training.
