Impact of an Intervention Designed to Reduce Sexual Health Risk Behaviors of African American Adolescents: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: To replicate an evidence-based HIV risk reduction program and assess its impact on 2 behavioral outcomes-inconsistency of condom use and frequency of sex-6 months after the program.

Methods: The study was an individual-level randomized controlled trial in which we randomly assigned 850 youths (aged 14-18 years) to 1 of 2 conditions. The treatment (Becoming a Responsible Teen) is a group-level sociocognitive and skills training sexual education course; the control is a general health intervention that includes the same initial informational component as the treatment.

Adapting an evidence-based model to retain adolescent study participants in longitudinal research.

Maintaining contact with and collecting outcome data from adolescent study participants can present a significant challenge for researchers conducting longitudinal studies. Establishing an organized and effective protocol for participant follow-up is crucial to reduce attrition and maintain high retention rates. This paper describes our methods in using and adapting the evidence-based Engagement, Verification, Maintenance, and Confirmation (EVMC) model to follow up with adolescents 6 and 12 months after implementation of a health program.

The role of middle-class status in payday loan borrowing: a multivariate approach.

Payday loans refer to small-dollar, high-interest, short-term loans usually extended to lower-income consumers. Despite much research to the contrary, the payday loan industry asserts that it primarily serves middle-class Americans. This article discusses the authors' investigation of the industry's claim, by analyzing data from a U.

Implementation lessons: the importance of assessing organizational "fit" and external factors when implementing evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs.

In recent years, the demand for evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs has increased, but practitioners often struggle to replicate and implement them as designed in real-world community settings. The purpose of this article is to describe the barriers and facilitators encountered during pilot year attempts to implement an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program within three types of organizations: (1) small community-based organizations; (2) a school-based organization; and (3) a large decentralized city-sponsored summer youth program. We frame our discussion of these experiences within the context of a systemic, multilevel framework for implementation consisting of (1) core implementation components; (2) organizational components; and (3) external factors.