Health Promotion

Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Reducing the Risk: Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STIs and HIV

Reducing the Risk (RTR) is a sixteen-session research-based curriculum designed to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy and exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The curriculum, targeted to youth between the ages of 14 and 18, focuses on delaying or reducing the frequency of intercourse and increasing the use of contraception and condoms. RTR is intended to supplement pre-existing health and sexual education curricula.

Topics covered include:

  • An overview of STIs, HIV, abstinence and birth control methods
  • How to obtain and use contraception
  • Risks and consequences of sexual activity
  • Decision making, negotiation and refusal skills
  • Tactics to prevent and delay sexual activity
  • Strategies to strengthen parent-child communication about sexuality