More than 800,000 teenagers become pregnant each year. Youth development programs, which are based on the belief that assets can insulate youth from engaging in harmful behaviors, are one promising approach to preventing teen pregnancy. However, to date there is little hard scientific evidence to suggest that youth assets are causally related to a reduction in teen sexual and related risk behaviors. The Youth Asset Study (YAS), a 3-year project funded by the CDC, is currently underway to test the asset/teen sexual behavior causal relationship. The current proposal is to request funding to extend the YAS so that waves 4 to 6 data can be collected and analyzed. The YAS is the first study to specifically and comprehensively investigate, using a developmental age group approach and a longitudinal study design, the relationships among youth assets and community factors and the strength of their relationships to youth sexual behavior, teen pregnancy, and related risk behaviors (e.g., alcohol and drug use). Currently, we are tracking a cohort of youth (baseline ages 12 to 17) and their parents (N=1,000 youth/parent pairs) in a 3-year longitudinal study. Using in-home, in-person interview methods, the study team collected wave 1 data from 1,000 youth/parent pairs and wave 2 data from more than 100 youth/parent pairs (to date). The retention rate is 94%. Wave 3 data will be collected in 2005 and 2006. This proposal encompasses collecting and analyzing data from waves 4 to 6 from the same youth/parent pairs. By following these youth through their teenage years and into early adulthood, we will investigate the role of assets and community factors in influencing the health behavior and outcomes of youth as they transition into older teen and young adulthood. The YAS goals directly contribute to several Healthy People 2010 objectives including objectives 9-7 (i.e., Reduce pregnancies among adolescent females) and 25-11 (i.e., Increase the proportion of adolescents who abstain from sexual intercourse or who use condoms if currently sexually active). The YAS is a scientifically rigorous evaluation of hypothesized relationships among community factors, assets and youth risk behaviors, which is of critical interest to the CDC, state and local health departments, and other organizations working in adolescent health. ? ?
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