Evaluation of Are You Ready?
NCT Number: NCT06580080
Acronym: AYR
Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
Phases: NA
Conditions: Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Sponsor: The Policy & Research Group
Sex: ALL
Age: CHILD, ADULT
Enrollment: 1850
Study Design: Allocation: RANDOMIZED|Intervention Model: PARALLEL|Masking: NONE|Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
Start Date: 2024-09
Completion Date: 2028-09-14

Summary:
The goal of this randomized trial is to learn if the Are You Ready? (AYR) intervention has a positive impact on the sexual and mental health behaviors of sexually active youth between the ages of 14 and 21 years old who are at risk for or involved in the juvenile justice and/or child welfare systems. The primary research questions it aims to answer are:

* Three months after being offered the intervention, does AYR impact youth's receipt of sexually transmitted infection testing in the past three months?
* Three months after being offered the intervention, does AYR impact youth's use of coping skills?
* Nine months after being offered the intervention, does AYR impact youth's frequency of having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past three months?

Researchers will compare participants randomized to receive AYR (treatment group) to participants randomized to receive a control condition that contains no sexual or reproductive health information (control group).

Participants randomized to the treatment group will be offered AYR as a virtual or in-person, 2.5 hour group session. Participants randomized to the control group will be offered a virtually delivered control condition.

Primary Outcome Measures: Receipt of sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing in the past three months, Participants are asked the following item:

1) Have you been tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the past 3 months? The resulting variable is dichotomous with values 0 or 1, where 0 indicates a person who has not received STI testing in the past three months and 1 indicates a person who has received STI testing in the past three months., Assessed three months after the intervention period has ended (four months post-baseline)|Use of coping skills, Participants are asked on a 4-point scale ranging from "I did not use" (1) to "I used almost all the time" (4) how often they used the following strategies:

1. I talked to someone to find out more about the situation.
2. I let people know what I needed.
3. I talked to someone who could act in some way to change the situation.
4. I asked for ideas from a friend who I could trust.
5. I made a great effort to make things work.
6. I spent time with someone I wanted to be with.
7. I tried to look after my health by eating food that was good for me.
8. I tried to eat regularly.
9. I made a plan of action and followed it through.
10. I tried to release my anger by exercising.
11. I tried to look after myself by getting plenty of sleep.
12. I tried to be physically fit. The measure is calculated as the average response to all 12 items in the scale., Assessed three months after the intervention period has ended (four months post-baseline)|Times having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past three months, Participants are asked the following two items:

1. In the past 3 months, how many times have you had vaginal sex without you or your sexual partner using a condom?
2. In the past 3 months, how many times have you had anal sex without you or your sexual partner using a condom? The resulting variable is continuous with values that range from 0 to k, where 0 indicates that a person has not engaged in vaginal and anal sex without a condom in the past three months, and k indicates the number of times the person has engaged in vaginal and anal sex without a condom in the past three months., Assessed nine months after the intervention period has ended (ten months post-baseline)