Interactive Videodisc Program¿Preventing Teen Pregnancy

This project will produce an interactive videodisc-based (IVD) system designed to promote adolescent pregnancy prevention through postponement of sexual intercourse, or through the use of effective contraceptive methods for sexually active adolescents. The IVD program will provide a non-threatening interactive format in which adolescents may make and examine decisions regarding sexual activity, see the consequences of different decisions without having to experience them, and observe similar adolescents modeling appropriate and effective responses in sexual situations. The intervention content and on-screen models in the interactive program will be "tailored" to the adolescent's gender and ethnicity with separate program material for Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic males and females. The exact nature of the material presented will be determined using formative evaluation procedures with "target" adolescent and adult focus groups. In Phase I we will demonstrate the efficacy of these formative evaluation procedures in identifying realistic content and themes, evaluate the need for the intervention material to differ across ethnicity, and produce a IVD program segment. In Phase II we will complete the Phase I evaluation procedures for all six gender and ethnic sub-populations and complete the final production process.