Making Better Choices (MBC)

Target: Adolescents

Subject Matter: Youth Violence, Teenage Pregnancy & STDs

Project Content: 27-Hour Training Program for Adolescents, 8-Hour Training Program for Parents

This project focuses on three problems that disproportionately affect minority youths: youth violence, unwanted teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. In an effort to reduce both the incidence and the interplay of these three problem areas, the MBC project entails 21 hour-long life skills intervention sessions for adolescents, followed by six hour-long training sessions designed to reinforce the initial curriculum. Parents/guardiance also attend a five-hour initial intevention and one three-hour booster training session to assist their children in sucessfully realizing the project's objectives.

Data collected from over 1,400 urban youths who have thus far participated in Making Better Choices is in the process of being analyzed. Future efforts will include training parents and older adolescents as program deliverers.

MBC was developed by a 5 1/2-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. The ongoing experimental research involves the collaboration of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and OPSR.

Office of Prevention Services & Research
Fax: (732) 235-9266 * E-mail: opsr@cmhc.umdnj.edu
1-800-762-2989/732-235-9260