Evaluation of Stepping Stones

Summary

The goal of this randomized trial is to learn if the Stepping Stones (StSt) intervention has a positive impact on the sexual health and relationship behaviors of sexually active youth between the ages of 12 and 22 years old who are at risk for or involved in the legal or child welfare systems. The primary research questions it aims to answer are:

* Three months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's receipt of sexually transmitted infection testing in the past four months?
* Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's frequency of having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past four months?
* Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's perpetration of emotional abuse in the past four months?

Researchers will compare participants randomized to receive StSt (treatment group) to participants randomized to receive a control condition that contains no sexual or reproductive health information (control group).

Participants randomized to the treatment group will be offered StSt as an in-person or virtual, individual-based intervention delivered over four sessions during a 6-8 week period. Participants randomized to the control group will be offered a virtually delivered control condition.

Conditions

• Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Like

Like is an hour-long film that discusses the impact of social media on the brain. Study staff will organize for each individual participant to watch the film in-person. The film does not include information related to the outcomes of interest for the study.

BEHAVIORAL

Stepping Stones (StSt)

StSt is an individual-level intervention designed to help youth make healthy decisions. StSt is delivered in-person or virtually by an adult guide during four \~30-50 minute sessions over a period of up to 8 weeks. The adult guide leads the youth through health-focused discussions related to identifying personal values, making a social network map, and then creating and refining individualized plans.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Department of Health and Human Services

  collaborator FED

• Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

  collaborator OTHER

• Public Health - Seattle and King County

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Reproductive Health National Training Center

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• The Policy & Research Group

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sarah Walsh, Ph.D. · The Policy & Research Group

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

22 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-09-16

Primary Completion

2028-03-31

Completion

2028-09-14

Countries

• United States

Study Locations