UK & World News
The latest UK & World news stories from the Press Association.
Drive to cut teen pregnancy 'fails'
10:05, Jul 8 2009
A £5.9 million Government drive to help cut pregnancies among disadvantaged teenagers failed when numbers actually increased, research has suggested.
The Young People's Development Programme (YPDP) ran in 27 parts of England between 2004 and 2007, based on a similar model in New York and was designed to offer education and support for 13 to 15-year-olds who were deemed at risk of exclusion from school, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy.
A total of 2,371 teenagers took part in the programme to some extent over the three years, at a cost of £2,500 each, but the latest research shows that young women who attended the programme were "significantly" more likely to fall pregnant than those in a comparison group.
A total of 16% of the YPDP group fell pregnant compared with 6% in the other group, which was a youth programme not receiving YPDP funds.
"Young women in the intervention group also more commonly reported early heterosexual experience (58% v 33%) and expectation of teenage parenthood (34% v 24%)," the study said.
This was despite those in the YPDP group receiving education about sex and drugs, being no more sexually active than the other group and some sites distributing free condoms.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), also found that young women in the YPDP group were more likely to have not used contraception when they most recently had sex.
The study was carried out by Meg Wiggins, from the Institute of Education at the University of London and Chris Bonell, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who were commissioned by the Department of Health to independently evaluate the programme.
They concluded: "Among young women, YPDP participants more commonly reported teenage pregnancies, early heterosexual sex and expectation of becoming a teenage parent, as well as temporary exclusion from school and truancy. No evidence was found that the intervention was effective in delaying heterosexual experience or reducing pregnancies, drunkenness or cannabis use. Some results suggested an adverse effect."
However, the researchers said The YPDP was rated highly by most young people staff, parents and other stakeholders.
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The latest UK & World news stories from the Press Association.
