CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
Grant Title: Reducing Risk Among Highly Vulnerable
Youth
Project Name: It Takes Two (IT2)
Funding Source and Project Period: NIMH, R01; 2004 -
2009
Collaborating Institutions and Key Personnel:
Albert Einstein College of Medicine:
Principal Investigator: Laurie Bauman, Ph.D. (also HIV
Center)
Project Overview:
Minority group inner-city adolescents are at
particular risk for acquiring HIV/STDs. Interventions
based on Social Cognitive theories have been successful
in reducing risk, but the magnitude of effects has been
small. We propose to evaluate the efficacy of "It Takes
Two" (IT2) for highly vulnerable inner-city
minority-group sexually experienced adolescents 14-17
years of age, in reducing risk for HIV/STDs. IT2 is
based on modified versions of theories of Social
Competency and Social Learning, and incorporates six
innovations; it: (1) targets sexually experienced youth;
(2) uses structural rebound as a delivery system; (3) is
more intensive than most risk reduction programs at 50
contact hours; (4) teaches how gender norms increase
sexual risk; (5) addresses how relationship beliefs
interfere with condom use; (6) addresses the distinction
between a general intention to use condoms and
"partner-specific intention". IT2 has two parts: (1) a
paid 13-session training program that provides and
knowledge/skills about sexual risk reduction, and
sessions on gender norms, relationships and risk; and
(2) a paid internship for 7 weeks working 4-6 hours per
week as "experts" on teen sexual behavior. In the
internship, teens become part of our program effort;
they design and produce their own video messages to help
other teens recognize gender and relationship as risks
for unsafe sexual behavior. We propose a two-group
intent-to-treat randomized controlled trial involving
400 minority group inner-city adolescents recruited from
Montefiore Medical Center (200 per group). IT2 will be
compared to an attention control, TEEN, our
award-winning peer counseling program that has been
shown to increase self-esteem and reduce psychological
distress in adolescents. This "attention" control is as
intensive as IT2 but does not include any discussion of
substance use or sexual risk. Teenagers will be
interviewed four times: baseline; T2 (6 months
post-baseline, when the IT2 and TEEN programs are
completed); T3 (one year after baseline) and T4 (18
months post baseline) to assess longer-term program
effects.
Update: 3/13/06
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