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A note from Joan Helmich, Editor of Healthy Exchange:
Welcome to our first edition of Healthy Exchange! This quarterly e-newsletter will focus on science-based approaches to teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent reproductive health promotion.
SO MUCH TO KNOW! People talk about science-based approaches, and science-based programs — what's the difference, and how are they different from comprehensive sexuality education? First we had 10 characteristics of effective programs, then 17 characteristics. We've been using interactive, effective teaching methods, and we apply what we know about learning modes, learning domains, and the 7 (or is it 8?) intelligences. And now there's new research about adolescent brain development. And where do the social learning theory, the social cognitive theory, and the behavior change model figure in the work we do with youth?
We have so much information about what works in sexuality education — how do we sort through it all? How do we know we are applying the most important models? How do we plan our programs and know we are doing our best? WHERE TO BEGIN?
With this newsletter, we hope to help you sort through it all. And, happily, the newest research and models draw it all together. So let's begin with some definitions...
SBA: NOT JUST ANOTHER ACRONYM TO FORGET
Just when you thought you had memorized every acronym you needed to know, along comes SBA — Science-Based Approaches. Add this one to your vocabulary, because you're going to see it over and over again, and it may become a great friend to your organization, useful to your community and school-based sexuality education efforts.
Through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control, CHT has undertaken a project to promote the use of SBAs to prevent teen pregnancy, STIs and HIV.
So, what are these SBAs? The quick answer is "using what has been proven to work." SBAs include planning, development and implementation processes, techniques, characteristics, curricula, activities and programs for which there is evidence of effectiveness. SBA refers not only to the type of program that works, but also to the process for developing a program or curriculum.
SBAs also include SBPs, the specific Science-Based Programs that were researched and proven to work. The research literature summarizes the characteristics of those programs and how they were developed and finds 17 common characteristics that the effective programs had in common. We will go further into the 17 characteristics in a future edition, but if you would like to see a summary of them, click here.
The official, academic definitions of SBA and SBP are more complex, and include reference to how we identify youth at risk, select risk factors to address, develop and select strategies and programs, and evaluate those programs. If you would like to read the CDC's definitions, click here.
The potential impact of increasing the use of SBAs is tremendous. We expect that there will be an increase in the number of state and local organizations choosing a science-based approach to prevent teen pregnancy. These organizations will be adapting a current program to meet science-based characteristics, or selecting a proven SBP, or developing a new program based on the science.
In turn, more youth will be participating in effective programs, increasing the chances that they will abstain from or delay sexual activity or use effective means of contraception and disease prevention when they are sexually active.
If you would like to do some more reading about science-based approaches, the following three organizations have excellent materials on their web sites:
Advocates For Youthwww.advocatesforyouth.org
Healthy Teen Network (Formerly NOAPPP)www.healthyteennetwork.org
National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancywww.teenpregnancy.org
This newsletter is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U65/CCU924367-02 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.