Enhancement ofReducing the Riskfor the 21st Century: Improvement to a Curriculum Developed to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and STI Transmission

AbstractTo ensure that Reducing the Risk, a successful teen pregnancy prevention education curriculum, remains relevant for today's youth, covers all information youth need to know in order to make better choices, and is delivered in a standardized way, adaptations were made and enhancements were added. This article describes results of a pilot execution of initial adaptations to Reducing the Risk with 13 youth from impoverished neighborhoods between the ages of 14 and 18. After each pilot day, a focus group was held with these 13 youth and further adaptations and enhancements were added to the curriculum. The full adapted and enhanced version of Reducing the Risk was then tested as part of a larger efficacy study utilizing a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial comparing the enhanced Reducing the Risk curriculum version with another curriculum that embeds sex education in the context of healthy relationship skill building, Love Notes, and a control condition curriculum. In order for other sites to replicate the work, this article details the findings from focus groups with youth participants in the pilot training that led to changes and additions in the curriculum. All changes and additions are described at length in this article.