Identifying Implementation Drivers for Teen Sexual Health Education Curricula

Abstract

This article focuses on examining the implementation of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programming in a select school district. Results are presented based on the following implementation drivers: (1) actions taken by leadership to make decisions, provide guidance, and support how the school site and community-based organizations are functioning in support of implementation; (2) actions taken to ensure competent staff delivery of the curricula; and (3) actions taken to create and sustain a hospitable context in order to implement the interventions at the school site. The need for adolescent sexual health education is evident in this geographic location where Hispanic or Latino teens consistently have higher birth rates among race and ethnicities that are routinely reported. For 2018, when this project started, those rates were 40 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 years. For 2018, the birth rates for African Americans was 31 and for Whites was 17 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 years. The project goals were to reduce teen birth rates by (1) providing evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention curricula to youth aged 11 to 19 years over the course of the 5-year project period, (2) training school staff and community members in the curricula, and (3) generating community support of youth access to reproductive health care and education. Despite a funding interruption to implementation of the project and the impact of COVD-19, educational programming was provided to 9,616 youth. The article details the key implementation strategies and solutions so that other practitioners can consider application of these implementation drivers in their own adolescent health education programming.