Baby Think It Over®: Using Role-Play to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Adolescence, Fall, 2001 by Jennifer W. Out, Kathryn D. Lafreniere

Perceived susceptibility and perceived severity are two key constructs of the health belief model (Herold, 1983; Rosenstock, 1974) expected to be influenced by experience with BTIO. According to this model, adolescents will be motivated to use contraception or to abstain from sexual activity only when they perceive that they are susceptible to being involved in an unplanned pregnancy and only if an unplanned pregnancy is perceived to be a serious negative consequence of unprotected intercourse. It was expected that participation in BTIO, as a form of role-play, would encourage teens to acknowledge their personal vulnerability to an unplanned pregnancy as well as provide them with some insight into the experience of adolescent parenting.

The intervention group for the present study consisted of students enrolled in parenting classes at two high schools. The comparison group consisted of students enrolled in physical education or geography classes at the same two schools. It was hypothesized that adolescents in the intervention group would report feeling more personally susceptible to an unplanned pregnancy than would those in the comparison group. It was also expected that based on their experience with the infant simulators, adolescents in the intervention group would form more negative attitudes toward an unplanned teen pregnancy than would those in the comparison group. It was believed that adolescents with negative views regarding teen pregnancy would have more favorable attitudes toward abstinence and the use of contraception than would adolescents with neutral or positive attitudes toward teen pregnancy. Finally, it was expected that adolescents in the intervention group would be more likely to provide concrete examples of the demands i nvolved in caring for an infant than would those in the comparison group.

METHOD

One hundred fourteen eleventh-grade students (24 males, 90 females) completed pre- and posttest measures assessing attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge related to contraception and fertility. They ranged in age from 14 to 19 years, with a mean age of 16.2 years (SD = 1.02 years). They were divided into intervention and comparison groups, consisting of 53 students and 61 students, respectively. Students in the intervention group were assigned specific dates, ranging from a minimum of two days and two nights to a maximum of three days and three nights (to accommodate weekends), during which time they assumed responsibility for the care of the simulated infant. Prior to receiving the baby doll, students received detailed instructions (both verbally and in print) regarding care of the doll.

Materials and Measures

Baby Think It Over (R). Six infant simulators developed by Rick Jurmaine (1994), an aeronautics engineer, were used in the study. Each 20-inch vinyl doll weighed seven to eight pounds and contained a battery-operated microcomputer that simulated an infant's realistic cry at random intervals of 15 minutes to 6 hours, 24 hours a day. Using an electronics box, it was possible to program the baby dolls to have one of three temperaments: easy, normal, or cranky. Easy babies "slept" from 3 to 6 hours at a time, normal babies slept from approximately 1 to 4 hours at a time, and cranky babies slept from 15 minutes to 3 hours at a time before requiring care.