Building Healthy Teen Relationships and Reproductive Practices to Increase Intervals Between Pregnancies
Condition: Teen Pregnancy
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 2

Summary: 
      This study will determine the best ways to help teen mothers stay healthy and to increase the
      time between their pregnancies to at least 2 years. It is designed to encourage attitudes and
      behaviors that are generally thought to be related to longer intervals between pregnancies.
      Children of teen mothers generally receive less health care, have lower IQ scores and are
      more likely to enter foster care. They have less supportive home environments and higher
      rates of incarceration and teen childbearing.

      African-American and Latino teenagers living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who
      are pregnant with their first baby may be eligible for this study. Mothers or mother figures
      of the teens also are encouraged to participate. Candidates must be between 15 and 18 year of
      age and speak English.

      Teen mothers enrolled in the study take a urine pregnancy test every 6 months during this
      2-year study. They are randomly assigned to one of the following two groups:

      Usual Care Group: Teens in this group are interviewed by telephone for about 1 hour every 6
      months and for about 15 minutes at 3, 9, 15 and 21 months. The hour-long interview includes
      questions about the teen's feelings and behaviors, risks to her health and well being, and
      how she communicates with her boyfriend and family members. She is also asked about what she
      does to reach personal goals, what she thinks about sexual health, and what support she gets
      from her family, boyfriend, or others. The 15-minute interview is an update to check on the
      teen's health and pregnancy status and to verify contact information.

      Intervention Group: Teens in this group are asked the same questions as those in the usual
      care group; however, they are involved in a project designed to encourage them to set goals
      of furthering their education and training and wait at least 2 years before becoming pregnant
      again. Teens in this group are counseled on learning to communicate and work out problems
      with their family and boyfriend and on how to keep from getting pregnant again soon. The
      participants meet for a 2-hour group session every 3 months at a local health center and are
      contacted frequently by a cell phone, which is provided to them at no cost. The phone
      sessions are about things that are important to the teens, such as problems in their
      relationships, health, sexually transmitted diseases, and preventing another pregnancy too
      soon. The conversations are private and take about 45 minutes.

      Mothers (or...
    

Detailed description: 
      The major objective of this program is to test the effectiveness of a community based
      intervention for minority teen mothers. The primary aim of the project is to: Evaluate the
      effectiveness of a community based intervention for minority teen mothers, with the primary
      purpose of increasing the inter-pregnancy interval to greater than 24 months. The secondary
      aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a community based intervention for minority teen
      mothers, with a secondary purpose of improving knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, relationships
      and connectedness generally understood to be related to length of inter-pregnancy intervals.
    

Intervention name(s): Community based intervention
Intervention type(s): Procedure
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy; Short Inter-Pregnancy Intervals