ABSTRACT

While teen pregnancy rates in the United States have been declining for decades, they remain the highest of all western countries. Within the U.S., Black and Latina teens experience disproportionate rates of unplanned pregnancy. Plan A is an entertainment-education video intervention that was developed to help address these disparities, in part by emphasizing the ability of young cisgender women to control when they become pregnant by using an effective contraception method. The intervention was developed in close collaboration with the target audience (Black and Latina women aged 18–19) to ensure that it was relevant, engaging, and motivational. We conducted an online study to: (a) investigate the effects of Plan A on attitudes toward the contraception methods covered in the video; (b) whether these effects varied by race/ethnicity or age, and; (c) if identification with characters in the video mediated these effects. The study used a posttest-only design where participants were randomly assigned to watch Plan A or to a neutral control condition. The sample included Black, Latina, and non-Latina White women aged 16 to 19 (N= 242), with younger and White women included for comparison purposes. Results indicated that exposure to Plan A significantly improved attitudes toward long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) among all age groups and among young Black and Latina women, but not White women. These findings may be explained by participant’s identification with the Black and Latina lead characters – both of whom model positive reproductive health behaviors.

摘要

虽然美国的青少年怀孕率几十年来一直在下降，但仍然是所有西方国家中最高的。在美国，黑人和拉丁裔青少年的意外怀孕率不成比例。计划 A是一种娱乐教育视频干预措施，旨在帮助解决这些差异，部分原因是强调年轻的顺性别女性通过使用有效的避孕方法来控制她们何时怀孕的能力。该干预措施是与目标受众（18-19 岁的黑人和拉丁裔女性）密切合作开发的，以确保它具有相关性、吸引力和激励性。我们进行了一项在线研究，以：(a) 调查A 计划的影响对视频中介绍的避孕方法的态度；(b) 这些影响是否因种族/民族或年龄而异，以及；(c) 如果对视频中人物的认同介导了这些影响。该研究使用了仅后测设计，参与者被随机分配到观看计划 A或中性控制条件。样本包括 16 至 19 岁的黑人、拉丁裔和非拉丁裔白人女性（N = 242），其中包括年轻女性和白人女性以进行比较。结果表明，暴露于A 计划显着改善了所有年龄组以及年轻的黑人和拉丁裔女性（但不是白人女性）对长效可逆避孕药（LARCs）的态度。这些发现可以通过参与者对黑人和拉丁裔主角的认同来解释——他们都是积极的生殖健康行为的典范。