Accentuate the Positive: A Resiliency Approach to Adolescent Reproductive Health

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Accentuate the PositiveA Resiliency Approach to
Adolescent Reproductive Health

• Julia Rosenbaum
• The CHANGE Project
• The Academy for Educational Development

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Resiliency Intervention Model The Basics

• Growing body of literature, coming largely from
  the domestic arena
• Searches for protective factors rather than risk
  factors
• Identifies internal and external factors
• Demonstrates that protection clusters, just
  like risk
• Predictive value high than risk factors

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Resiliency Other Assets-based Approaches The
Basics

• Youth development, school health, assets,
  positive deviance
• Assets inventory (Search Institute), Youth
  Mapping (CYD/AED), CA Healthy Kids
• Both a methodology and an ideology

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Traditional intervention research

• Identifies risk factors for a certain health
  outcome (e.g. teen pregnancy)
• Focuses on deficits that need to be filled
  (usually with outside resources)
• Leads to identification, labeling and
  stigmatization of deviants and communities
• Ignores that
• the majority of at risk populations are often
  surviving if not thriving, and
• solutions already exist within communities to
  address problems

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EXTERNAL ASSET CLUSTERS

• Caring Relationships
• High Expectations
• Meaningful Participation
• within the home, school, community and peer
  networks

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INTERNAL ASSET CLUSTERS

• SOCIAL COMPETENCE
• Cooperation and communication skills
• Empathy and respect
• Problem solving skills
• AUTONOMY and SENSE OF SELF
• Personal Conviction
• Self-Efficacy
• Self Awareness

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INTERNAL ASSETS CONTD

• SENSE OF MEANING AND PURPOSE
• Optimism
• Goals and achievement motivation

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Resiliency Research in Jamaica

• First-ever resiliency analysis conducted by the
  Jamaica MOH through re-analysis of Caribbean
  Youth Health Survey
• About to embark on comprehensive resiliency
  intervention research with MOH/Kingston,
  MOH/Clarendon, Rural Family Support Project
  (RFSO) and Hope Enterprises, Ltd.

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• Quantitative Survey
• adapting the California Healthy Kids Survey
• www.wested.org/hks
• 12-16 year old males and females in Clarendon
  Parish
• Sample size approximately 750-1000

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• Teen perceptions of
• caring relationships
• high expectations
• meaningful participation
• social competence
• autonomy and sense of self
• sense of meaning and purpose

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Which of the factors???

• support teens to
• delay sexual activity
• protect themselves from pregnancy

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Why resiliency?

• Builds an intervention around resources already
  existing in community
• Enhances
• acceptability and
• sustainability
• ??Shows impact beyond ARH objectives??

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Research rolls into activities in late 2001

• Coordinated with Youth.now efforts in Clarendon
  to enhance availability and quality of
  youth-friendly services
• Build community demand while Youth.now improves
  supply