Introduction
To reduce the risks related to sexual activity and help youth transition to adulthood, Congress authorized the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. PREP grantees educate youth on abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. They receive funding from the Family and Youth Services Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
To support PREP programming, ACF contracted with Mathematica to conduct the PREP: Promising Youth Programs (PREP-PYP) project. One aim of PREP-PYP was to develop or adapt sexual health curricula for populations typically underserved by existing sexual health curricula.
Purpose
This report summarizes the process for adapting an in-person curriculum, Promoting Healthy Sexual Development and Pregnancy Prevention with Children and Youth in Care, into an online course titled Healthy Sexuality and Pregnancy Prevention for Youth in Foster Care: An Online Course for Parents and Caregivers of Youth in Foster Care . The in-person curriculum was created by the Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The online course includes 10 modules and takes about three hours to complete.
The report describes how the PREP-PYP team identified parents and caregivers of youth in foster care as a focal population and the curriculum to adapt. In addition, the report describes the steps for adapting the curriculum and what was learned from usability testing and small-scale pilot implementation of the course. Finally, it shares potential next steps for the course and for future research.
What We Learned
- Through a review of literature and curricula, and discussions with experts and parents and caregivers of youth in foster care, the PREP-PYP team identified gaps in the existing materials available for these parents and caregivers. This information guided the adaptations to Promoting Healthy Sexual Development and Pregnancy Prevention with Children and Youth in Care, including adding content about adolescent brain development, monitoring and supervising youth’s online activities, and sex trafficking.
- Pilot participants felt the course’s modules presented information that was informative, relevant, and useful for their roles as parents and caregivers of youth in foster care.
- Pilot participants also reported the modules presented content in an engaging way and provided a strong foundation to help parents and caregivers feel more comfortable and prepared to have conversations about sexual health with youth.
- Following the pilot implementation, the PREP-PYP team edited the course to improve clarity and created supplemental tip sheets to enable users to have handy references after completing the course.
- The report includes recommendations for further enhancements to the course that could be completed in the future, such as adding more examples about how to communicate with youth who have experienced trauma or integrating videos directly into the training platform.
Methods
Adapting the curriculum into an online course was a multistep, collaborative process to revise the curriculum content and modify activities for an online format. The PREP-PYP team worked closely with federal partners; experts; parents of youth in foster care; young adults formerly in care; and dfusion, Inc., which specializes in developing online trainings. Once the team revised the course’s content, dfusion, Inc. designed the visuals and programmed the course for the pilot.
In the small-scale pilot, participants completed the course and a virtual focus groups to share their feedback. There were five focus groups, each focused on different topics and modules within the course, such that five participants provided feedback on each topic. The PREP-PYP identified themes based on their feedback.
Recommendations
After the pilot, the PREP-PYP team updated the online course in response to pilot participants’ feedback. The team also created tip sheets that accompany the course.
Through the development and pilot of the course, the PYP-PREP team identified several potential areas for future programming and research. Future adaptations to the course could include adding more examples about how to communicate with youth who have experienced trauma or abuse. Through the pilot process, the PREP-PYP team also identified several potential opportunities to expand the content offered in the course to meet the needs of other youth-serving professionals, including child welfare caseworkers and school guidance counselors. Future research could explore whether the course is appropriate as written for these other populations and could examine outcomes for course participants to determine whether their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors changed after completing the course.
Citation
Keating, Betsy, Jacqueline Crowley, Veronica Murphy Sotelo, and Jean Knab. “Healthy Sexuality and Pregnancy Prevention for Youth in Foster Care: Adapting a Curriculum for Parents and Caregivers of Youth in Foster Care into an Online Course.” OPRE Report #2023-015. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023.