The impact of funding disruptions on large-scale teen pregnancy prevention research projects.

To advance the field of teen pregnancy prevention, new interventions must be developed and tested. The federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention program (TPP) funds the evaluation of promising interventions. We report on a funding disruption to 21 TPP Tier 2B research grantees across the US that was unusual for its ideological causation, sudden timing, severity, and ultimately court decisions compelling the agency to reverse the decision.

A Tale of Two Audiences: Formative Research and Campaign Development for Two Different Latino Audiences, to Improve COVID-19 Prevention Behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected the Latino population in the United States, further exacerbating the existing racial and ethnic health disparities that this group faces. While government health entities rushed to develop COVID-19 prevention educational materials in Spanish, these failed to recognize the unique motivators and barriers that move different Latino audience segments to act. We conducted five online focus groups with two different Latino audience segments, general Latino people, and Latino migrant workers, to assess their experience navigating the pandemic, their engagement in preventive behavior, and their consumption of health news.

Experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic among young parents with foster care backgrounds: A participatory action PhotoVoice study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on many vulnerable populations, including youth in foster care and parents of young children. In this study, we worked with nine parenting current and former foster youth to share their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic through photography. Data were collected between January and March 2021 during a series of three virtual PhotoVoice sessions, then transcripts of PhotoVoice sessions and participant-selected captioned photographs were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Crush: A Randomized Trial to Evaluate the Impact of a Mobile Health App on Adolescent Sexual Health.

Purpose: Mobile technology allows delivery of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information directly to youth. We tested the efficacy of Crush, a mobile application aimed at improving sexual health by promoting the use of SRH services and contraception among female adolescents.

Methods: We recruited 1,210 women aged 14-18 years through social media advertising and randomized them into a Crush intervention group and a control group that received a wellness app.

COVID-19 Vaccination Perspectives Among Young Parents with Foster Care Backgrounds.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unique stressors for youth in foster care and recent foster care alumni, particularly those who are also parenting young children. One way the pandemic can be mitigated is through vaccination of the general population. Yet, some young adults have been slow to choose to be vaccinated.

Experiences of young parents with foster care backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unique challenges to parents of young children, due to the closure of schools and childcare centers, and increased caregiver burden. These challenges may be especially pronounced for youth with foster care backgrounds, as they lack critical support and resources to rely on during emergency situations.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the experiences of these vulnerable young parents since the beginning of the pandemic.

Short-Term Impacts of Pulse: An App-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program for Black and Latinx Women.

Purpose: Black and Latinx women aged 18-20 years have high rates of unplanned pregnancy. Furthermore, this age group is less likely than school-aged youth to be served by pregnancy prevention programs typically administered in schools. The study's purpose was to assess the effectiveness of a new app-based teen pregnancy prevention program created for this population using an online- and texting-only recruitment and evaluation approach.

Implementing Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy-Prevention Interventions in a Community-Wide Initiative: Building Capacity and Reaching Youth.

Purpose: To describe efforts to implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs) within multicomponent, community-wide initiatives to reduce teen pregnancy.

Methods: During 2011-2014, we collected information about the capacity (i.e.

Expanding the consumer-directed workforce by attracting and retaining unaffiliated workers.

Unaffiliated workers are directly hired personal assistance workers who are not employed through an agency and are not family members or close friends. This article examines the working conditions of unaffiliated workers in a consumer-directed setting in comparison to agency workers and to other consumer-directed workers. Unaffiliated workers earned higher wages than their peers but were less satisfied with these wages and benefits than other directly hired workers.

Hiring relatives as caregivers in two states: developing an education and research agenda for policy makers.

Meeting the long-term care needs of the growing aging population is a priority policy issue in the United States. Yet, hiring relatives as caregivers remains a controversial policy issue. This two-state case study reports findings about views from policy experts regarding a policy option to hire family caregivers in home- and community-based long-term care programs.