Theme: Engaging Parents
Need
Family plays a big role in teens’ lives — it is a source of information and an influence on their behavior, according to seven “Listening Tours” conducted throughout the region in the fall of 2010. Listening tour participants reported that they want to be able to ask their parents about sex, but it’s uncomfortable and parents don’t always know how to talk to their kids about it or handle the fact that their children are sexually active. In addition, daughters of teen mothers are more likely to become teen parents themselves,[1] repeating a cycle.
Regional Scan
There are several programs in Northeast Florida that work to improve the communication skills of the parents of adolescents. “Teening Up,” offered by the Duval County Cooperative Extension targets parents with teens between the ages of 9 and 16 years old and serves as a prevention tool rather than an intervention. The curriculum has six sessions of an hour to an hour and a half. The curriculum teaches parents about the normal development of young and middle adolescent children and teaches skills to avoid more serious problems. The sessions include: the teen brain; transitions to adolescence; positive discipline; talking with teens about dating, sex, drugs and alcohol; understanding teen anger (and managing yours); and empowering teens to build assets. Teening Up also includes three activities per session to engage parents and practice skills, reflection and empathy-building and asset assessments. This program is under-utilized and could be expanded in the counties outside Duval.
Other programs that potentially address this need in Northeast Florida include:
· United Way of Northeast Florida – Parenting Courses: Series of 7 parenting classes
· Jacksonville Network for Strengthening Families: 7 Habits of Successful Families: interactive course that allows families to set goals and strengthen skills
· Children’s Home Society: Parenting classes for parents of children ages 0-2, 2-12, teens, or of attention deficit disorder children
Online resources for parents are also available through the Jacksonville Jaguar Foundation’s Straight Talk initiative (www.straighttalk.jacksonville.com/parents.shtml).
Evidence-Based Interventions
See Teening Up above.
Ten Tips for Parents, compiled by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Parenting, offers easy-to-use, common sense lessons based on research. They are designed to help teens delay sexual activity, as well as encourage those who are having sex to use contraception carefully.
16 and Pregnant Discussion Guides: This hit MTV show is available on video with discussion guides can be used by parents to talk with their teens about sex and teen pregnancy (http://www.stayteen.org/16-and-pregnant ).
Implementation Strategies
1. Provide “Train the Trainer” workshop for the “Teening Up” parenting curriculum through the Duval County Cooperative Extension to community-based organizations and others working with teens and their families.
2. Incorporate parent component into existing organizations, agencies and groups.
3.
4.
Potential Partners for Implementation
· Duval County Cooperative Extension
· Faith-based community
· Community non-profits serving teens and their families
· Other?
· Other?
· Other?
[1] Hoffman, SD (2006). By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy: Washington, DC
