Evaluation Results from the Children’s Aid Society Carrera Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

May 1, 2001

Young women enrolled in the Children's Aid Society Carrera-model teen pregnancy prevention program had fewer than half the number of pregnancies and births as did a control group of young women. A 12-site, national, random-assignment evaluation of this program, supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation of Flint, Michigan and the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City, found these results among disadvantaged teens who were followed for three years by Philliber Research Associates.

This program is one of only 4 such programs shown to affect pregnancy and births that has been studied with a rigorous random assignment methodology. The program was tested among 941 largely poor and minority teens in disadvantaged neighborhoods in 7 urban areas of the United States. These teens were followed were ages 13 to 15 when they first enrolled.

“Of all the studies that I’ve looked at, of all the 73, the research on The Children’s Aid Society Carrera Program has the strongest evidence and the only evidence that it actually reduced pregnancy and child-bearing for a three-year period of time. So, this is a very, very important study.”

-Douglas Kirby, Senior Research Scientist at ETR Associates and author of Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

New York City 2001 Data
After three years of a rigorously regulated random assignment research study designed and carried out by Philiber Research Associates, which followed 300 teens involved in the CAS Carrera Program at New York City CBOs and 300 teens in a control group participating in the usual youth programs of the sponsoring CBOs, the following statistically significant outcomes between the program group and the control group were obtained.

• Pregnancy rates are lower among teen females in the CAS Carrera program group;
• Birth rates are lower among teen females in the program group;
• Program teens delayed the initiation of sexual intercourse;
• Program teens used contraceptives more conscientiously when they did choose to have intercourse;
• Program males and females had higher sexuality information scores;
• Program females were more able to resist coercive sexual pressure;
• Program teens have more employment experience over the three years;
• Program teens open and maintain more bank accounts over the three years;
• Program teens have higher PSAT scores;
• Program teens use computers more frequently and knew a word-processing program;
• Program teens used a hospital emergency room less for health care, and were less likely to report the emergency room as their only source of care;
• Program teens were more likely to have received the Hepatitis-B vaccine.

Begun in 1984 in Harlem, the CAS Carrera program is characterized by the following:

• using a "parallel family systems" approach or staff treating children as if they were their own;
• viewing each young person as pure potential;
• using a holistic approach to young people which includes multiple services, and meeting comprehensive interests and needs;
• continuous and long term contact with teens, characterized by individual planning and tracking 12 months a year through high school;
• services for young people, their parents, and adults in the community;
• use of a non-punitive, gentle, generous and forgiving approach, and
• reduction of program fragmentation by providing services under one roof in the participant's community.

The program sees children as "at promise" rather than as "at risk."

These principals of the program infuse all five program activities and the two services offered by the model. The program components are:

1. a work-related intervention called job club, including stipends, development of an individual bank account, graduated employment experiences, and career awareness;
2. an educational component including individual academic assessment, tutoring, homework help, PSAT and SAT preparation, and assistance with college entrance;
3. family life and sex education (FLSE);
4. self expression through the arts, and
5. lifetime individual sports.

These components are supplemented by comprehensive medical and dental care, reproductive health counseling, availability of contraception, and mental health services, including counseling as needed.

These programs run six days a week during the school year. During the summer, young people receive assistance with employment and maintenance meetings are held to reinforce sex education and academic skills. There are also occasional social, recreational and cultural trips.

Contact:
Allison Mitchall, 917-286-1548
Ellen Lubell, 212-949-4938