Sexual health programming for vulnerable youth: Improving knowledge,attitudes, and behaviors |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland, 4200 Valley Dr., Suite 1234, College Park, MD 20742, USA;2. School of Social Work, University of Maryland, USA;3. Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, USA;4. Waikiki Health, USA;1. Seattle Children''s Research Institute, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, 2001 8th Ave, M/S CW8-6, Seattle, WA 98121, USA;2. University of Washington, 1410 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98195, USA;1. Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development Research/Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children''s Hospital and Research Institute/University of Washington, 2001 8th Ave Suite 400, Mailstop CW8-6, Seattle, WA 98121, USA;2. Boston University, School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Rd, Boston, MA 02215, USA |
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| Abstract: | PurposeAmong girls in foster care, 48% become pregnant at least once by age 19 (Dworsky & Courtney, 2010). Youth in or at-risk for foster care (YFC) report limited knowledge about, access to, and use of condoms; ambivalent attitudes towards teen parenting; and participation in other risky behaviors. For the current study, we adapted and supplemented an evidence-based sexual health program called SiHLE, using a systematic adaptation framework (ADAPT-ITT, Wingood & DiClemete, 2008), to address the unique and targeted needs of youth living in a temporary shelter due to lack of housing. Youth in this study were either in foster care and awaiting placement, or having serious family problems and were at-risk of entering the foster care system.MethodsThirty-six youth participated in SiHLE-YFC during their stay at a temporary shelter. Four 90-minute sessions focused on increasing sexual health knowledge, improving attitudes towards and self-efficacy of condom use, and developing core skills such as problem-solving and communication.ResultsAs hypothesized, youth showed high satisfaction with the intervention and significant improvement in sexual health knowledge from pre to post. At one-month follow-up, youth continued to show significant improvement in sexual health knowledge, along with a significant reduction in risky sexual behaviors. Though not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for changes in attitudes towards teen pregnancy and condoms. There were no changes in attitudes towards teen parenting.ConclusionTaken together, findings suggest that sexual health education directly targeting the unique needs of YFC may improve sexual health knowledge and behavior, and are discussed in the context of challenges associated with intervention and research with this population. |
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