Children and teens who engage in sexual behavior are at greater risk for emotional problems, pregnancy, dating violence, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). RAND studies have examined such topics as prevention and intervention strategies, virginity pledges, the influence of the media on adolescent sexual behavior, and the link between romantic teen relationships and later adult marriages.
RAND Health has worked on multiple studies identifying the predictors and consequences of adolescent sexual intercourse. The most recent work, by Dr. Anita Chandra, is the first study to demonstrate a link between exposure to sexual content on television and the experience of a pregnancy before the age of 20.
Blog
A new field called implementation science examines how to best support providers in taking up new, research-proven treatments and implementing them well. A RAND study will test how Boys & Girls Clubs carry out a program proven to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, with and without an intervention called Getting To Outcomes®.
Journal Article
Although the initiation of sexual behaviors in adolescence is normative, adverse sexual health outcomes disproportionately affect adolescents relative to adults.
Journal Article
To examine the cost and cost-effectiveness of implementing Talking Parents, Healthy Teens, a worksite-based parenting program designed to help parents address sexual health with their adolescent children.
Journal Article
Overviews the study Enhancing Quality Interventions Promoting Healthy Sexuality (EQUIPS), which tests how well a community-based setting conducts an EBP, Making Proud Choices, that aims to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Journal Article
Young women valued communicating their intent not to have sex as an end in itself, but compared with other young women, those who had been raped feel more strongly about protecting their partner's feelings and maintaining a sexual relationship.
Journal Article
Drop-in centers can play an important role in facilitating testing among homeless youth, including among injection drug users, but more outreach is needed to encourage testing in other at-risk subgroups.
Content
Today's adolescents live in an unprecedented, media-rich environment. Technology has greatly increased the volume of available content, much of which can now fit in a pocket. RAND Health explores the growing role of media in determining adolescent health.
Report
The authors developed this matrix of measures to summarize the state of measurement in the arena of new media use and its potential relationship with adolescent sexual risk behavior and sexual health and set the stage for further research efforts.
Report
An expert panel was convened to develop a working knowledge base about the use of new media (the Internet, social networking sites, cell phones, online video games, MP3 players) among adolescents and the potential impact on their sexual health.
Journal Article
Investigates the multiple levels of influence on unprotected sex among homeless youth, including social network, individual, and partner level influences.
Multimedia
Madeline Di Nonno, executive director for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Rebecca Collins, a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation, discuss how media images of girls influence how they see themselves and whether portrayals of sex in popular music, television, and film influence behavior.
Journal Article
Interventions need to recognize the importance of social networks of homeless youth in emerging adulthood by enhancing supportive bonds and reducing substance use and risky sex.
Research Brief
Summarizes research on Talking Parents, Healthy Teens, a worksite-based parenting program designed by RAND and University of California at Los Angeles researchers that improves communication between parents and their adolescents on sexual health.
Journal Article
Young homeless "travelers" engage in higher risk behavior than non-traveler homeless and may have different service needs and require different service approaches.
Journal Article
A reanalysis of data from earlier studies continues to show associations between sex in the media and adolescent sexual outcomes. The evidence does not prove causality but suggests cautions for parents.
Journal Article
Longitudinal research has demonstrated a link between exposure to sexual content in media and subsequent changes in adolescent sexual behavior, including initiation of intercourse and various noncoital sexual activities.
Report
Reviews the controversy over the true high school graduation rate in the United States, provides a comprehensive review of the debate, discusses shortcomings of current methods, and proposes new methods that address those shortcomings.
Past Event
Senior behavioral scientist Rebecca Collins and Madeline Di Nonno, executive director for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, will discuss how media may shape boys' and girls' beliefs about sex and gender, their sexual behavior, and their futures.
Journal Article
This study examined whether specific parenting factors can be used to predict adolescent problem behaviors in intervention studies.
Research Brief
Examines parent-child discussions of sexual behavior. Finds consistency in the timing and content of such discussions; however, many parents and children do not discuss key topics, such as birth control, before adolescents become sexually active.
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