Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Nine Minutes to Avoid Nine Months

Authors

Natalie Custodio
Ronaldo Gomez
Katherine Mejicanos-Portillo
Jalen Templeman

Files

Description

The United States is one of the most developed nations with one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy. Although there has been a reduction in teen pregnancy nationally, areas in DC such as Wards 5, 7 and 8 still have teen birth rates above the national rate. The objective for our project is to provide a targeted-intervention to decrease teen pregnancy rates by increasing awareness of safe sex practices, contraceptive methods and STIs/HIV. Our program will provide a 9-minute session on sexual health at chosen schools and youth organizations in Wards 5, 7 and 8 to target 11 to 19-year-old youths. Further, we plan to assess our plan by providing satisfaction surveys to participants at the end of each session. We will also encourage youths to follow us on Instagram to spread the word about sexual education. The project aims to be a safety net for those adolescents who have not been exposed to sexual health education. We will apply the Health Belief Model (HBM) to our program to ensure that we address perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perception of barriers all with the goal of improving the self-efficacy of our participants. We hope to impact these communities to ultimately reduce the teen pregnancy rates, and improve sexual health education and access in adolescents in DC.

Publication Date

2018

Disciplines

Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Public Health Education and Promotion

Comments

© 2018 The Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Recommended Citation

Custodio, Natalie; Gomez, Ronaldo; Mejicanos-Portillo, Katherine; and Templeman, Jalen, "Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Nine Minutes to Avoid Nine Months" (2018). DC Health and Academic Prep Program (DC HAPP). 8.
https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/dchapp/8

Open Access

1