Promising programs to improve reproductive health outcomes include those that focus on early childhood investments, that involve teens in school and in outside activities (including youth development in combination with sexuality education and community volunteer learning), and those that send nurses to visit teenage mothers, which reduce their chances of becoming pregnant again.

• According to Child Trends Research Brief, many solid research studies in the field of adolescent reproductive health identify activities and behaviors that may lead teens to become sexually experienced, to be currently sexually active, to have multiple sexual partners, to use contraception, to become pregnant, to have a birth in the teenage years, or to engage in sexual behaviors that may lead to contracting a sexually transmitted disease. By examining this research, policy makers and service providers can help develop programs to help adolescents delay sex, avoid pregnancy, and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. There are far fewer high-quality experimental evaluations of those programs to help guide policy makers and practitioners. But those that do exist point to a number of approaches that work, which include some sexuality education and HIV education programs, but also include a variety of other approaches. Promising programs to improve reproductive health outcomes include those that focus on early childhood investments, that involve teens in school and in outside activities (including youth development in combination with sexuality education and community volunteer learning), and those that send nurses to visit teenage mothers, which reduce their chances of becoming pregnant again. Combining successful approaches from experimental evaluations with “best bet” strategies may amplify the effectiveness of future interventions.¹

¹Preventing Teenage Pregnancy, Childbearing, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases: What Research Shows, Child Trends Research Brief, May 2002, pp. 1-10.

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