Pregnancy Prevention
Conditions
Keywords
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention, LGB Girls, Text messaging
Brief summary
This is a pilot effectiveness study of Girl2Girl, a text messaging-based pregnancy prevention program for cisgender sexual minority adolescents.
Detailed description
An estimated one in four teen women will become pregnant by the time she is 20 years of age. That said, significant disparity in rates exist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual minority women (LGB) versus non-LGB teen women: Research suggests that lesbian and bisexual teen women are between two and four times more likely to report having been pregnant than teen women who identified as exclusively heterosexual. Despite this compelling evidence that lesbian and bisexual adolescent women are at risk for teen pregnancy, programs tailored to the unique needs of adolescent LGB women are nonexistent. Evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) programs targeting LGB teen women are urgently needed. The Girl2Girl intervention text messaging-based TPP program designed specifically for LGB women ages 14-18 years, nation-wide. This is an extension of a previous randomized controlled trial. Here, the cohort was recruited using an effectiveness strategy: Girls were allowed to register and enroll themselves without needing to talk to research staff. All eligible and interested youth were allowed to enroll; no diversity targets were applied.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALGirl2Girl
The program has a 'core' 7 weeks of daily messages and then a week 'booster' that is delivered 3 months later.
Sponsors
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
14 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Endorse a non-heterosexual sexual identity (i.e., lesbian/gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, unsure) on the screener; * Be cisgender (i.e., be assigned a female sex at birth and endorse a female gender identity) on the screener; * Be aged 14-18; * Be English speaking; * Be able to provide informed assent, including the self-directed self-safety assessment.
Exclusion criteria
* Not passing the self-directed self-safety assessment * Knowing someone who is already enrolled in the program (added part-way through the recruitment period) * Non-cisgender identity in the screener
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Condom protected penile-vaginal Sex Acts | 3-months post-intervention | The relative difference of protected penile-vaginal sex acts in the intervention versus control group at 3-months post-intervention |
| Number of Participants Who Used Other Birth Control Methods | 3-months post-intervention | The relative difference of teens who used birth control methods other than condoms (e.g., the pill, the patch) in the intervention versus control group at 3-months post-intervention |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) | 3-months post intervention | The relative odds of reporting an HIV or other STI test during the observation period for those in the intervention versus control |
| Pregnancy | 3-months post intervention | The percent of teens who have been pregnant since the beginning of the observation period in the intervention versus control group |
| Intentions to use condoms | 3-months post intervention | The percent of teens who intend to use condoms if they have penile-vaginal sex in the future |
| Intentions to Use Birth Control Other Than Condoms | 3-months post intervention | The percent of teens who intend to use birth control other than condoms if they have penile-vaginal sex in the future |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed