Evaluation of Stepping Stones
NCT Number: NCT06574217
Acronym: StSt
Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
Phases: NA
Conditions: Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Interventions: BEHAVIORAL: Stepping Stones (StSt)|BEHAVIORAL: Like
Sponsor: The Policy & Research Group
Collaborators: Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs|Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.|Public Health - Seattle and King County|Reproductive Health National Training Center
Sex: ALL
Age: CHILD, ADULT
Enrollment: 650
Study Design: Allocation: RANDOMIZED|Intervention Model: PARALLEL|Masking: NONE|Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
Start Date: 2024-09
Completion Date: 2028-09-14
Locations: The Policy & Research Group, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70118, United States

Summary:
The goal of this randomized trial is to learn if the Stepping Stones (StSt) intervention has a positive impact on the sexual health and relationship behaviors of sexually active youth between the ages of 12 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 StSt impact youth's receipt of sexually transmitted infection testing in the past four months?
* Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's frequency of having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past four months?
* Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's pereptration of emotional abuse in the past four months?

Researchers will compare participants randomized to receive StSt (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 StSt as an-person, individual-based intervention delivered over four sessions during a 6-8 week period. 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 four months, Participants are asked the following item:

1) Have you been tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the past 4 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 four months and 1 indicates a person who has received STI testing in the past four months., Assessed three months after the intervention period has ended (five months post-baseline)|Times having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past four months, Participants are asked the following two items:

1. In the past 4 months, how many times have you had vaginal sex without you or your sexual partner using a condom?
2. In the past 4 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 four months, and k indicates the number of times the person has engaged in vaginal and anal sex without a condom in the past four months., Assessed nine months after the intervention period has ended (eleven months post-baseline)|Perpetration of emotional abuse, Participants are asked how many times in the past four months they have done the following things to a sexual or romantic partner:

1. Damaged something on purpose that belonged to them?
2. Said things to hurt their feelings on purpose?
3. Insulted them in front of others?
4. Would not let them talk to or do things with other people?
5. Threatened to start dating someone else?
6. Did something just to make them jealous?
7. Blamed them for bad things you did?
8. Threatened to hurt them?
9. Made them report where they were every minute of the day?
10. Put down their looks?
11. Threw something at them but missed?
12. Told them they could not talk to someone else?
13. Started to hit them but stopped?
14. Brought up something from the past to hurt them? Participants are provided with four response options: 0 times; 1 to 3 times; 4 to 9 times; or 10 or more times.

The measure is calculated as the average response to all 14 items in the scale., Assessed nine months after the intervention period has ended (eleven months post-baseline)