An Overview of Project Connect, a Multi-Level Social-Ecological Intervention to Improve Adolescent Health Through the Prevention of STDs, Including HIV, and Teen Pregnancy

Adolescents are influenced by their social context, including families, schools, and health care systems. Project Connect is evaluating a multi-level social-ecological approach to adolescent STD prevention, including interventions for parents and structural changes to school programs and health care. It is currently implemented in 12 high schools and 14 middle schools in an urban California school district with a quasi-experimental design. Intervention activities are designed to increase parental monitoring, health care utilization, and use of school programs. Three cross-sectional waves of data (N > 25,000) have been collected thus far. Measures include intervention specific outcomes, sexual behavior and Chlamydia prevalence.