Population & Family Health

Gender Matters is a 5-year grant to develop, implement and evaluate a gender transformative sexual health promotion intervention with low income black and Latino 14 and 15 year olds enrolled in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) in Austin Texas.  The intervention is guided by a view of sexual behavior as, at least in part, an enactment of gender scripts or narratives.  As such, attempts to promote sexual health must begin with a critical focus on dominant gender scripts.  GM includes 5-day workshops with groups of 13-15 youth delivered while they are enrolled in SYEP during the summer followed by a full-year text messaging campaign, and community-wide educational events developed with youth in the program.  Approximately 400 youth will be in the intervention arm and 400 in the control arm of this study.  Primary outcomes for the GM program include reducing teen pregnancy by delaying the onset of sex among participants who are not sexually active; increasing the correct use of effective contraception among those who are; and increasing the proportion of youth who adopt health-seeking behaviors (such as a reproductive health care visit). Secondary goals include influencing traditional beliefs about masculinity and femininity, advancing more equitable attitudes about relationships and the balance of power within them, and influencing other gender-specific views, such as responsibility for pregnancy prevention and ambivalence about pregnancy.  The project is funded by the office of Adolescent Health in DHHS and is a collaboration between Engender Health and the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health.