Neighborhoods where prevention efforts thrived tended to share leadership duties across several participants and used a variety of techniques, including e-mail, to spread their message through the community, says Michelle C. Kegler, Dr.P.H., of Emory University and colleagues.
"Organizing neighborhoods around teen pregnancy prevention is challenging, but it can be accomplished when the right constellation of factors is in place," Kegler and colleagues say.
The study followed a two-year planning process to determine which of five different neighborhoods were ready to work on teen pregnancy prevention through a program that promotes youth development. Activities in the planning process were coordinated by the Heart of OKC project at the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, which promotes personal assets like decision making skills and positive peer role models as its overarching prevention strategy.
Central city areas were chosen that had high teen birth rates and racial and ethnic diversity, including concentrations of Vietnamese, Hispanic, African-American, Native American or white residents.
The planning process in the Vietnamese neighborhood was the most successful, followed by the Hispanic area. Readiness levels in the white, Native American, and African-American neighborhoods were not high enough to move successfully beyond the planning process.
In the last three neighborhoods, teen pregnancy was not considered as high priority as other issues, or there was no local organization interested or able to provide ongoing leadership, the researchers concluded.
In the Vietnamese community, the activities benefited from an experienced and trusted coordinator, strong ties to a respected neighborhood church, opportunities for both adults and teens to take leadership roles and multiple effective communication methods that reached adults and youth, including e-mail, phone calls and a full-page "youth forum" feature in the monthly Vietnamese newspaper.
Neighborhoods that lacked many of these features or showed little interest in the topic at all were the ones where activity halted after the planning phase. In the case of the mostly white neighborhood, for instance, many community members did not think that teen pregnancy was a problem. In the predominantly African-American neighborhood, residents said they were more worried about crime and safety issues.
Socioeconomic factors may have also affected a particular neighborhood's effort, especially among parents who worked multiple jobs and did not have the time or interest to participate in meetings, task forces and the creation of action plans.
"Neighborhood-based efforts in high poverty areas must tap into the real needs of residents and be relevant enough to compete with day-to-day demands on time," Kegler says.
The study was published in the January/February issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior and supported by the Centers for Disease Control.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.
Interviews: Contact Michelle Kegler at (404) 712-9957.
American Journal of Health Behavior: Visit www.ajhb.org or e-mail eglover@hsc.wvu.edu.
Journal
American Journal of Health Behavior