The Effectiveness of an Infant Simulator as a Deterrent to Teen Pregnancy Among Middle School Students

This research was one of the first longitudinal studies to determine the effectiveness of a computerized infant simulator as a deterrent to adolescent pregnancy. All of the female eighth-grade students (221) in 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 from a suburban North Texas middle school were part of this study. They were tracked from the eighth grade through high school graduation to determine whether and when pregnancies occurred. The Kaplan-Meier procedure for survival analysis was used to determine test statistics. Survival functions and hazard functions were created for each independent variable--parenting the infant simulator, ethnic and racial, involvement in co-curricular activities, and crime. Results showed the computerized infant simulator to be highly effective in postponing the on-set of pregnancies for those students who participated in the parenting simulation. Hazards peaked at 3 years, 2 months for the experimental group and at 2 years, 21/2 months for the control group. Summertime and holiday seasons marked times of the year when the majority of pregnancies occurred. Caucasians peaked before the Other ethnic group. No significant differences were detected in regard to involvement in co-curricular activities, and no involvement in crime was self-reported. The model was developed to use as a guideline for implementing a pregnancy prevention unit in schools. This model could be used by Family and Consumer Sciences classes, teen pregnancy prevention programs, childbirth preparation classes, at-risk student programs, substance abuse intervention programs, and religious education classes.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2000

Author dc:creator

• Hillman, Carol Best

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wircenski, Jerry L.
• Holman, John E.
• Sarkees-Wircenski, Michelle
• Schumacker, Randall E.

• Teenage pregnancy -- Prevention.
• Parenting -- Simulation methods.
• pregnancy prevention unit
• eighth-grade students
• computerized infant simulator
• adolescent pregnancy
• parenting simulation

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Hillman, Carol Best
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 47677349
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2639/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc2639

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc2639