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

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

Interestingly, no significant differences were found between the comparison and intervention groups in terms of the number of educational, economic, and social consequences of teen pregnancy they listed. Few of the adolescents in either group were able to provide more than one consequence for each of these categories. It is likely that adolescents in the intervention group were exposed to selective aspects of teen parenting, which may have influenced their thinking. For example, becoming actively involved in caring for the baby doll may have made it easier for adolescents to list child-rearing consequences, since these consequences were more immediate. However, long-term consequences, such as educational and economic problems faced by a teen parent, likely remained outside the time frame conceptualized by the adolescents. It appears that, in this respect, the effectiveness of BTIO is limited.

Limitations of the Study and Implications for Further Research

The present study had a few limitations that should be kept in mind when considering the effectiveness of the BTIO program. First, although pregnancy status would be the preferred outcome measure to assess the general efficacy of BTIO, it was not feasible to collect this information over the time period that was available to conduct the study. Therefore, conclusions regarding BTIO's effectiveness at preventing teen pregnancy are limited to attitudinal findings.

Second, it should be noted that the findings cannot be readily generalized to adolescent males, since they made up less than a quarter of the sample. Further, parenting and/or sex education classes at both schools were not required; students had the option of enrolling in them to fulfil the social science requirement. It is possible that a self-selection bias existed, such that adolescents enrolled in the parenting/sex education classes were more interested in these issues than were those who opted against taking these classes. Thus, future research related to BTIO and similar interventions should involve more adolescent males, and also be designed in such a way as to determine whether or not they have any unique concerns or attitudes relating to perceived susceptibility to an unplanned pregnancy, perceptions of teen parenting, attitudes toward contraception, and views concerning abstinence from premarital sex. Additionally, research should be aimed at examining the impact of BTIO on adolescents who may not b e particularly interested in, or motivated to learn about, teen parenting or issues related to contraception and abstinence.

Finally, previous studies have found that the mere observation of adolescents role-playing the consequences of teen pregnancy was enough to induce some significant attitude changes. In the present study, it was not possible to determine whether or not BTIQ had any significant effects on teens who simply observed their classmates caring for the dolls. Although it was not determined how much exposure (as observers) students in the comparison group had to BTIO, it was noted that several students in the intervention group attended classes with students in the comparison group. Future research should be designed in such a way as to segregate the comparison and intervention groups (perhaps by having each at a different school) and to have an additional group that would receive controlled exposure to BRIO.