Neighborhoods where prevention efforts thrived tended to share leadership duties across several participants and used a variety of techniques, including e-mail, to spread their message through the community, says Michelle C. Kegler, Dr.P.H., of Emory University and colleagues.
"Organizing neighborhoods around teen pregnancy prevention is challenging, but it can be accomplished when the right constellation of factors is in place," Kegler and colleagues say.
The study followed a two-year planning process to determine which of five different neighborhoods were ready to work on teen pregnancy prevention through a program that promotes youth development. Activities in the planning process were coordinated by the Heart of OKC project at the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, which promotes personal assets like decision making skills and positive peer role models as its overarching prevention strategy.
Central city areas were chosen that had high teen birth rates and racial and ethnic diversity, including concentrations of Vietnamese, Hispanic, African-American, Native American or white residents.
The planning process in the Vietnamese neighborhood was the most successful, followed by the Hispanic area. Readiness levels in the white, Native American, and African-American neighborhoods were not high enough to move successfully beyond the planning process.
In the last three neighborhoods, teen pregnancy was not considered as high priority as other issues, or there was no local organization interested or able to provide ongoing leadership, the researchers concluded.
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Contact: Michelle Kegler
404-712-9957
Center for the Advancement of Health
4-Mar-2003