Research Article Critique Ryan Monette Wayne State University SW3810 W

RESEARCH ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDs are concerns among many Americans. Inwood House is an agency in New York City that provides services for pregnant and parenting teenagers. Inwood House received funding for an Adolescent Family Life Demonstration grant to begin the Project IMPPACT (Inwood House Model of Pregnancy Prevention and Care for Teenagers). The purpose of this study is to evaluate abstinence-based, small-group approaches to preventing pregnancy and STDs. The study took place in three New York City Middle schools. At the beginning it was hypothesized that participants in Project IMPPACT would report significant positive changes from pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up. It is anticipated that participants in Project IMPPACT who were or who became sexually active during the program would be less likely at follow-up than comparison students to engage in sexual behaviors that could lead to unintended pregnancy or STD infection. The 312 participants of this study were divided into two groups, 125 students were assigned to the intervention group and 187 students to a comparison group which would RESEARCH ARTICLE CRITIQUE 2

receive no special services. Students in the intervention group were recruited through classroom presentations by IMPPACT workers and the comparison group students were recruited by a data collection staff. All student participants were required to obtain written parental consent, and all students participated on a voluntary basis. After the pre-tests were taken, the intervention group underwent a four month abstinence-based program. Once the program was completed, students from both groups were given a post-test. One year later, IMPPACT contacted the participants for a follow up survey. All three surveys consisted of many different variables such as depression, self esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy, attitude about teenage sex, attitude about teenage pregnancy, sex intentions, parental relationship, parental respect, and parental talk. Each variable was then broken down into the following categories, male, female, sexually active, not sexually active and eighth grade. The results were evaluated in terms of short-term effect and long-term effect. There were a few statistically significant short-term differences between groups. There were no short-term differences between groups in attitudes RESEARCH ARTICLE CRITIQUE 3

about teenagers having sex or in intentions to have sex. There

were, however, significant increases among the sexually active participants of them talking to their parents about sex. Participants in the comparison group became less likely to do so. The long-term effects were as expected. Although there were no significant long-term findings for self-efficacy, intentions to have sex or attitudes about teenage pregnancy, The intervention males moved from lower scores at pre-test to higher scores at the one-year survey while the comparison males moved from higher to lower scores in regard to their attitudes about teenagers having sex. There were some of the limitations of this study. The biggest limitation was the students self-selection of which group they were in. This self selection resulted in some differences between the two groups. The intervention group was a more needier or high risk group. Another problem resulting from self-selection is the issue of small sample sizes. The researcher was not able to evenly distribute participants into groups. A third limitation to this study is the idea that this data is being collected from minors. There is no way of knowing if any participants lied on their

RESEARCH ARTICLE CRITIQUE

surveys. A strength of this study is that the researcher

collected and analyzed data on both short-term and long-term time scales. In conclusion, the author states these findings suggest the need for in-depth study, over a longer term, that addresses the needs of young people at the highest risk of teenage pregnancy. With a long term study, the appropriate method for addressing the issue of teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDs may be discovered.

References

Lieberman, L. D., Gray, H., Wier, M., Fiorentino, R., & Maloney, P. (2000). Long-term outcomes of an abstinence-based, small-group pregnancy prevention program in new york city schools. Family Planning Perspectives, 32(5), 237-45. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/2243 70521?accountid=14925