Do adolescents take "Baby Think It Over" seriously?

Adolescence, Spring, 2004 by Jerrold E. Barnett, Cynthia S. Hurst

Some of these schools had the same programs over a period of years, so some of the 10th graders were having their second experience with BTIO and formal sexuality education. All students had written parental consent to participate in the sexuality education program, including the BTIO activity and the evaluation.

Procedure

The BTIO activity is integrated into the Life's Walk curriculum, and clear instructions, a demonstration, and practice inserting the key and caring for the simulator (which steps crying when the key is inserted) were provided to the students. The rules of care were explained, and supplies such as diapers and a diaper bag were distributed.

BTIO is not only a mandatory part of the curriculum, but also a stimulus for other activities in the classroom. Pricing car seats and strollers, investigating day-care options, and shopping for baby food and diapers are all class activities tied to BTIO in the Life's Walk program. Further, class discussions and writing assignments follow the BTIO activities.

All parents received written materials about the sexuality education curricula and BTIO, and were invited to a parent meeting. They were informed of the purpose of the BTIO activity and encouraged not to become "babysitters" or to assume responsibility for the simulator.

One month after the program ended, a questionnaire was administered by Life's Walk personnel. The BTIO items were part of a larger evaluation.

Instrumentation

Data were collected from two sources. First, a survey was administered to all students at the end of the program. This survey contained items targeted specifically at their reaction to BTIO and the impact of BTIO on their future decision making, plus one item about sexual behavior in the month since the program. The 8 BTIO items had an alpha reliability of .78 and are presented, in brief form, in Table 1.

The second data source was the technical readout provided by BTIO: the number of times BTIO was neglected (left to cry for a long period of time without being attended to), the number of times BTIO was handled roughly, and the total amount of time BTIO cried (representing the quickness of response to BTIO). Data were collected on 173 students. Data were not collected from all program participants due to time constraints. On numerous occasions, the simulators were returned by one school and delivered almost immediately to another school, leaving insufficient time to retrieve BTIO data. No intentional or systematic bias was involved: schools often schedule this activity around the same time and Life's Walk, Inc., tried to accommodate as many schools as possible.

RESULTS

Attitudes toward BTIO, Parenting, and Sex

Students' reactions to BTIO are presented in Table 1. Seventy-three percent agreed that BTIO showed them what it would be like to be a single parent and 76% agreed that BTIO helped them decide to wait to have children. Seventy percent disagreed that BTIO taught them that caring for babies is fun. Most important, 65% agreed that BTIO made them more likely to postpone sex. The responses to the survey items clearly show the value of the BTIO experience in helping students to recognize the difficulty of caring for an infant and to understand the importance of delaying parenthood.