Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

Project Taking Charge:

An Evaluation of an Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program

OVERVIEW

Project Taking Charge was designed to reduce the occurrence of adolescent pregnancies in high-risk, economically depressed areas by providing educational classes to adolescents and their parents. The program included a six-week curriculum for students as part of their home economics classes and three sessions of meetings for parents and adolescents. Classes were randomly selected to be in the treatment or in the control group. Treatment group classes focused on abstinence and also encouraged discussion about career goals and aspirations. Project Taking Charge proved to be largely ineffective in changing sexual behavior. Only three out of 12 hypotheses were supported. Adolescents gained significant knowledge of sexual development and STDs, and so did their parents. Adolescents also improved communication with their fathers regarding occupational interests. No significant delay in initiation of sexual activity between the treatment and control groups was found.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Seventh-grade students at high risk for adolescent pregnancy and their parents.

Project Taking Charge aimed to reduce the frequency of adolescent pregnancies in economically depressed areas with high-risk populations. The program consisted of a six week program for adolescents enrolled in home economics classes and a three session component for the adolescents and their parents administered in the evenings. Project Taking Charge focused on promoting strong family values and abstinence from sexual activity. Adolescents were expected to examine their attitudes towards sexual development and intimate relationships, and parents were expected to communicate family values and standards to their adolescents. The program also involved developing occupational goals in adolescents by encouraging parents and children to explore and discuss these aspirations together.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: A total of 136 adolescents and 126 parents were involved in the program when it began during the fall of 1989. The program was delivered during the normal school day for adolescents and during the evenings for the adolescents and their parents. The program focused on occupational planning as a way to improve adolescents’ motivation and ability to abstain from early sexual activity. The program was initially administered at three sites deemed appropriate due to the high incidence of adolescent pregnancy and the large number of low-income families. These sites included Wilmington, Delaware; West Point, Mississippi; and Ironton, Ohio. At each of the three sites, the treatment and control groups were classes that were randomly selected by the home economics teacher, and the number of participants in these groups varied across sites. The sample population was broken down into a treatment group, comprised of 77 adolescents and 69 parents, and a control group, which included 59 adolescents and 57 parents.

Approach: Adolescents in the treatment and control groups completed a self-administered questionnaire prior to the six-week course, and the parents in both groups were either interviewed over the telephone or given a questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire was designed to test for knowledge about teen pregnancy and sexuality, feelings towards teen pregnancy and sexuality, adolescents’ alignment with parents’ beliefs, and the style of communication between adolescents and their parents. Similar questionnaires were administered to the parents and adolescents following the study and the results were analyzed. There was no student attrition, and all but two parents provided data.

Results: After the six-week course for adolescents and the three meeting sessions with both parents and adolescents, only three of the 12 hypotheses were supported. Adolescents gained significant knowledge of sexual development and STDs. Parents also showed increased knowledge of sexual development and STDs. The adolescents also improved on communication with their fathers about occupational interests. The nine unsupported hypotheses were not associated with negative findings, but rather with non-significant findings. Adolescents in the treatment group were significantly more likely to understand issues of human sexuality, sexual development, and STDs. They were also more likely to communicate effectively with their fathers about vocational issues. Participants in the treatment group were also slightly more likely to delay sexual intercourse if they were not already sexually experienced than members of the control group, but these findings were not statistically significant at the .05 level.

The authors note that one limitation of this study was the brevity of the questionnaires administered to the adolescents and parents. The questionnaires were shortened due to the limits on class time and constraints based on the poor reading ability of many of the participants. The relatively small sample size was also a limiting factor because similar results with data from a larger sample size would be more significant. In addition, the author notes that the finding that sexual activity among participants in the treatment group was delayed following the study should be viewed skeptically. It is important to take into account the possibility that the participants in the treatment group might be more hesitant to admit to participation in sexual activity than those who did not participate in the program, regardless of the prevalence of actual sexual activity.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program curriculum: http://www.aafcs.org/resources/publications_catalog.html

References

Jorgensen, S. R. (1991). Project Taking Charge: An evaluation of an adolescent pregnancy prevention program. Family Relations, 40(4), 373-380.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: adolescent (12-14)

Program components: school-based; parent or family component

Measured outcomes: educational/cognitive; teen pregnancy and reproductive health

Program information last updated 3/14/07