Reducing Adolescent Sexual Risk: A Theoretical - ETR Associates

sexual minority youth and pressure situationsthat involve friends pressuring each other to gobeyond their personal limits.Simple changes in language or situations can helpbalance the scenarios to which youth respond.Other strategies, such as allowing youth tochange the scenarios to make them more realistic,also can achieve more balance. Similarly, usingroleplay scenarios that only depict situations inwhich individuals are having sex and not situationsin which individuals are choosing abstinenceis unbalanced and may feel irrelevant toyouth who are making that choice. One option tobroaden relevance is to present multiple scenariosfor each roleplay and allow a variety of youth toselect which ones they believe are most realistic.Finally, this review pass can also be used to makethe lessons more gender neutral (e.g., using theterms sexual partner, or one’s partner in place ofboyfriend or girlfriend) to ensure the program isinclusive of sexual minority youth.Pilot TestingBefore implementing a curriculum widely, pilottest and observe the implementation of individualactivities, lessons and the entire curriculum withparticipants similar to the intended population. Thisprocess is an essential element of program developmentand provides an opportunity to see howstudents respond to the content and strategies, toassess whether the lessons generate the expected discussionsand reflections, and to collect feedback andsuggested changes from participants (see Box 10-1for examples of pilot test probes). Pilot testing alsoallows developers to test out activity and/or lessonsequences and test the time allocations for specificactivities and lessons.Numerous resources are available to provide moredetailed steps for conducting formative research.Some key considerations are highlighted below.• Small-scale pilot testing of individual activities.This type of pilot testing typically involvesassembling small groups of youth and implementingselected activities. Youth are asked to providefeedback on the activities and share thoughts onhow to improve them. For the best results, besure to actually implement the activities as partof these small-scale pilot testing events, ratherthan having youth just read and review them,since youth will be better able to provide feedbackif they experience the instruction. It also givesdevelopers a chance to see the activities in action.Small-scale pilot testing also can be accomplishedby establishing a youth advisory committee whosemembers serve as an ongoing feedback and pilottest group. Youth involved in these activities generallyreceive a stipend or gift certificate for theirtime and participation as well as recognition fortheir contributions.• Small-scale pilot testing of individual lessons.Once individual activities have been tested withyouth, it is helpful to test entire lessons to examinesequence and timing issues and to get a senseof the likely impact of a lesson. This type of pilottesting is ideally done in the setting in which thecurriculum will be used (e.g., a classroom or anafter-school program). This type of pilot testingalso could be done with a youth advisory group.Schools and community agencies generally arewilling to partner for these types of activities,particularly if they receive small incentives (e.g.,classroom supplies).Box10-1Potential Pilot Test Probes• If you were to describe the main points of this activity(lesson/program) to a friend, how would you describethem?• Using your thumbs, how would you rate this activity:thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways?• How can we make this activity (lesson/program)better?• What part of the activity (lesson/program) do youthink will be of most interest to other teens your age?What about least interesting?• What did you think of (insert specific area of interest)?• We’ve posted several pieces of chart paper on thewall for today’s lesson. Please write three words thatdescribe what you think other teens would say aboutthis lesson.Chapter 10 Conclusions 123