Evaluation of Stepping Stones (StSt)

The Policy & Research Group

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Treatments

Behavioral: Stepping Stones (StSt)

Behavioral: Like

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT06574217

1 TP2AH000093-01-00

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this randomized trial is to learn if the Stepping Stones (StSt) intervention has a positive impact on the sexual health and relationship behaviors of sexually active youth between the ages of 12 and 22 years old who are at risk for or involved in the legal or child welfare systems. The primary research questions it aims to answer are:

Three months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's receipt of sexually transmitted infection testing in the past four months?
Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's frequency of having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past four months?
Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's perpetration of emotional abuse in the past four months?

Researchers will compare participants randomized to receive StSt (treatment group) to participants randomized to receive a control condition that contains no sexual or reproductive health information (control group).

Participants randomized to the treatment group will be offered StSt as an-person, individual-based intervention delivered over four sessions during a 6-8 week period. Participants randomized to the control group will be offered a virtually delivered control condition.

Full description

This is an individual-level, randomized control trial to rigorously evaluate the impact of the Stepping Stones (StSt) intervention. Participant outcomes will be assessed using self-reported, individual-level data gathered using a structured questionnaire administered at three time points: baseline (enrollment); three months post-intervention (five months after baseline); and nine months post-intervention (eleven months after baseline).

Enrollment

650 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

12 to 22 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

At risk for or involved in the legal or child welfare systems
Report ever having vaginal and/or anal sex and plan to have sex in the next six months
Comfortable reading, speaking, and writing in English

Exclusion criteria