Teaching Teens How to Use Condoms
is Not the Only Method for Pregnancy Prevention
Researchers at the University of Louisville compared a traditional body based sex education program, which includes condom negotiation and demonstrations, to Love Notes, a comprehensive relationship education program that teaches teens how to protect both their bodies and their hearts.
At the end of the year, the teens in the traditional program were almost twice as likely to get pregnant as the innovative comprehensive relationship education approach.
Take a look at the Issue Brief on the topic.
As a result of the random control study, Love Notes, a robust relationship skills curriculum, has earned a place on the Office of Adolescent Health’s (OAH) list of evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention programs.
It is one of only six programs to be proven effective in preventing pregnancy and the only one on the list that uses adolescent romantic relationship development as its theory of change.
Love Notes is geared towards older teens and young adults who are at risk of an unplanned pregnancy, troubled relationships, or who are already pregnant or parenting.
The program aims to help young people make wise relationship and sexual choices—choices that will help them, rather than create barriers, for achieving their education, employment, relationship, and family goals.
While focusing heavily on healthy relationship concepts and skill building, Love Notes also incorporates significant content on sexual decision-making, medically accurate STI and contraception information, pacing of relationships, and violence prevention. As such, it represents an innovative approach to pregnancy prevention.
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