Interventions Intended to Reduce Pregnancy‐Related Outcomes Among Adolescents

Abstract

This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of teenage pregnancy prevention programs in promoting abstinence, encouraging the use of contraception and reducing the likelihood of pregnancy among teens.A thorough literature search was conducted up to April 2006. The review summarises findings from 31 studies which included 37,000 youth conducted in the US or in developed countries with higher than average rates of unplanned teen pregnancy, such as Canada, England, New Zealand, and Australia.This review finds no consistent evidence that the types of pregnancy prevention programs evaluated rigorously to date will alter in intended ways the sexual activity or pregnancy risks of youth. However, this overall pooling of studies mixes results of different program types serving different populations of adolescents.This review highlights the relative dearth of evidence to judge the overall effectiveness of particular intervention strategies. For this reason, further research and evaluation is necessary, including studying programs that have not yet been evaluated rigorously and programs that have been replicated and are serving new populations of adolescents in different communities.