Adolescent Family Life Research Awards - FY 2003

Reducing the Risk of Early Sex in Single Mother Families

University of Arizona
Family and Consumer Sciences
1110 E. South Campus Drive, Room 210
Tucson, AZ 85721
Principal Investigator: Bonnie L. Barber, Ph.D.
Project Period: 9/30/03 - 9/29/05

This project will develop an empirical foundation for recommending a set of parenting practices to target in prevention
interventions with single-parent families. Longitudinal data on parenting practices in early adolescence will be
analyzed: 1) to test a conceptual model to predict early initiation of sexual activity; 2) to consider "packages" of
parenting practices that collectively predict a delay in first sexual intercourse; and 3) to study the adolescent for
whom the models fail to predict sexual behavior outcome. The conceptual model to be used predicts that parents
influence the development of their adolescents' sexual behavior choices by communicating their perceptions of the
child's capabilities and expectations for behavior and achievement, by providing specific experiences for the child, by
modeling involvement in sexual relationships, through discipline style and monitoring, and by the general social-
emotional climate they provide.

Adolescent Fathers' Involvement Intervention

Temple University
School of Social Work
1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave, RA 555
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Principal Investigator: Jay S. Fagan, D.S.W.
Project Period: 9/30/03 - 9/29/06

This project will target the male partners of pregnant female adolescents in seeking to promote meaningful father
involvement once the child is born. Two hundred expectant adolescent couples (65 percent African American and 35
percent Latino) will be recruited at the Temple University OB/GYN clinic. The young fathers will be randomly assigned
to one of two treatment groups: positive co-parenting (MELD for Young Dads program) or prenatal and child development
class. Fathers and adolescent mothers will participate in a pretest, posttest, and follow-up when the child is three
months of age. The expected outcomes are improved co-parenting relationships, increased father involvement both before
birth and when the child is three months of age, greater employment success and educational expectations, and improved
parenting abilities.

Parental Involvement in Teen Risk Avoidance

Baylor University
Department of Marketing
P.O. Box 98007
Waco, TX 76798
Principal Investigator: John F. Tanner, Ph.D.
Project Period: 9/30/03 - 9/29/04

This project will utilize focus groups to inform program recruiters of the appropriate message content needed to reach
various segments of the parent population. Data from these focus groups will be employed to form media messages which
will be tested and used to recruit parent participants in an abstinence education program. In addition, through the use
of parental style surveys and matching parents' surveys with those of their children to measure parental style impact on
teen attitudes and behaviors, this project will determine which parental style segment(s) should be targeted. Finally,
by offering varied incentives either before or after the parent programs, the study will further demonstrate the impact
of incentives on the participation of parents in an abstinence program.

Resilience Among Adolescent Mothers and Children Age 7

University of Maryland, Baltimore
Dept. of Pediatrics
655 West Lombard Street, Suite 311
Baltimore, MD 21201
Principal Investigator: Maureen Black, Ph.D.
Project Period: 9/30/03 - 9/29/06

The proposed project will examine resilience in young mothers and their 7 year-old children by extending an ongoing
evaluation of a randomized trial of home visitation designed to promote parenting and family processes among three-
generation households. This will entail of an evaluation of the young mothers, children, fathers, and grandmothers in
the Three Generation Project. The primary aims of the project are: 1) to examine resilience among young mothers who
entered parenthood as adolescents and among their 7-year old children; 2) to examine how patterns of risk factors and
personal resources identified during the first two years of parenting influence resilience among mothers and children at
age 7; 3) to examine how concurrent family interaction patterns are related to resilience among mothers and children at
age 7; and 4) to examine how an intervention delivered in the first year of life targeting parenting and family
processes impacts resilience among mothers and children.

Do As I Say Not As I Do: Parental Monitoring and Teen Sexual Risk

West Virginia University Research Corp.
Department of Pediatrics
Medical Center Drive
Morgantown, WV 26506
Principal Investigator: Lesley Cottrell, Ph.D.
Project Period: 09/30/2003- 09/29/2006

The goal of the proposed project is to examine the current model of parental monitoring by introducing a new variable,
parental monitoring behavior, or the behaviors parents engage in to confirm their adolescent's activities. This model
will be evaluated through the development, implementation, and analysis of a comprehensive parental monitoring measure
during the first year of the project. Another goal of the project will be to utilize the results from the evaluated
measure to modify an existing parent-adolescent program. Program modifications will be made in an attempt to sustain the
effects of the program in improving parental monitoring/knowledge, parent-adolescent communication about sexual issues
and reducing adolescent involvement in sexual risk behaviors. The final goal of this project will be to implement and
evaluate the modified parent-adolescent program using a randomized controlled trial and follow up assessment schedule.

An Experiential Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Experiment

Wayne State University
College of Education, Rm. 345
Detroit, MI 48202
Principal Investigator: Cheryl Somers, Ph.D.
Project Period: 9/30/2003-9/29/2005

"Baby Think It Over" (BTIO) is an approach to pregnancy prevention that allows teenagers to temporarily care for a baby
in the form of a life-like infant similator in order to provide an idea of the responsibility involved with becoming a
parent. The aim of the proposed project is to conduct a rigorously designed research examination of the impact of this
program. The specific objectives of the proposed study are to 1) experimentally study whether teens who receive the
BTIO intervention evidence desired behavioral and attitudinal change not evidenced by a comparison group; 2) examine
potential differences in the impact on each gender; and 3) across ethnic and geographic groups, to determine for whom
the program may or may not be effective.