Program Logic Model

1) What social problem did the program seek to address?
The social problem that the program sought to address was the need to reduce risky sexual behaviors among teenage youths. Risky sexual behavior is common among teens (Chapin, 2001) and programs that focus on educating teens about reducing risks associated with sex can be a way to address the issue (Walsh-Buhi et al., 2016). However, there is a need to understand teens’ perspective and for adults to be able to relate to what teens are going through in order to help convey the message about risk (Kerpelman, McElwain, Pittman & Adler-Baeder, 2016). For that reason, the program aimed to find a way to help bridge the gap between adult educators and youths and the idea of using young parents as peer educators to talk to teens about sex and preventing teen pregnancy was the focus of the program in the study by Parekh et al. (2018).
2) Describe the program’s theory of change. (10 points)
The theory of change was rooted in the study by Stakic, Zielony, Bodiroza and Kimzeke (2003) which found that peer education could facilitate the change of mind in young people needed to get them to think more seriously about risk and taking responsibility. Promoted by Damon (1984) as a way to tap previously untapped potential, the idea is also found in the psycho-social theory of Bandura (2018) who showed that peers are one of the most influential groups when it comes to moderating social behaviors.
Parekh et al. (2018) studied peer and health educators, both of whom received training in how to deliver program content to teens, with a focus on accountability, communication, leadership, and personal motivation, as well as on “developing skills related to college and career readiness, personal responsibility, public speaking, professionalism, time management, and reliability” (Parekh et al., 2018, p. 3). By emphasizing these critical skill sets and qualities, the educators gave the teens concepts to think about and apply in their own lives, with goals to help them focus on achieving. The study aimed to see what approaches used by the peer educators and health educators were most effective. What they found was that when the peer educators and health educators collaborated the impact was greatest because teens received personal stories from young mothers as well as important health information from a health care professional. Thus, this approach coupled relatable stories with knowledge and authority.
3) Describe at least three assumptions that inform the program’s design.
Three assumptions that inform the program’s design were: 1) Peer educators have similar experiences to youth and can draw on these experiences to facilitate learning; 2) Health educators can provide useful knowledge that teens need to know in order to reduce their exposure to risky sexual behavior; and 3) Teens will be receptive both to authorities on sexual health and preventing teen pregnancy and to young mothers who are close to them in age because they will get to see first-hand what it is like to be a young mother from their interactions with peer educators and they will come to more deeply understand the health issues at stake from the professional. These assumptions may have limited the program’s design by preventing a fuller assessment from being developed and implemented—one that would have taken into consideration the perspective of the teens themselves to see what their thoughts and feelings were in response to the approaches. This could have been useful information to contrast with the perspectives of the educators so that the teen feedback could also be utilized to create the most effective program approach possible. The researchers did not discuss these assumptions as limitations, however.
4) What type of evaluation is this?
The evaluation was qualitative consisting of interviews and focus groups with 17 individuals participating in the evaluation and sessions lasting from one hour to an hour and a half in length. Health educators and peer educators were incentivized to participate with a $50 participation bonus and data was coded using NVIVO, and thematic analysis was conducted. The evaluation did not make use of quantitative data or engage in any statistical evaluation. The data was primarily qualitative with the intention being to obtain a deeper insight into the perspective of peer and health educators regarding their thoughts on what they felt the most effective teaching approach to be when implementing the program.
5) Identify the program’s stakeholders. Include those who are identified in the report and any others that you think would have been important.
The program’s stakeholders were health educators, peer educators, teens, and parents of the teens but also community members as well because it has been shown that teen pregnancy has an effect on communities and not just on the lives of those directly involved in the pregnancy (Bickel, Weaver, Williams & Lange, 1997). The main stakeholders, however, were the educators and the teens who received the program. While the study focused mainly on the perspective on the educators to evaluate how they felt the program was received, the teens themselves hold a significant stake in the program as they represent the target audience. For that reason, obtaining their perspective on the program could have made the study all the more meaningful and given it an extra dimension of insight. The more that educators can know about how to connect and convey information most meaningfully the better prepared they will be in the future to implement programs like Re:MIX.
6) Discuss how this evaluation addressed two of the following four standards for evaluation:
a. Utility—Who needed this evaluation?
This study was needed by those involved in the prevention of teen pregnancy—i.e., those working to develop and implement effective programs that can help prepare teens to be more responsible and accountable when it comes to their lives, sexual behavior, and planning for their futures. The evaluation provided important insights that educators could use regarding the best approaches and methods that peer and health educators felt have the most impact on their audiences. Child Trends conducted the evaluation in order to assess the reliability of the Re:MIX program and how well and effectively it conveyed the need to be mindful of teen pregnancy and the spread of STIs. The evaluation allowed Child Trends to understand which balance of educational approaches was strongest in the eyes of the educators, based upon the feedback they received from teens.
d. Accuracy--Were the evaluation findings valid and reliable?
In any qualitative study, findings are going to be highly subjective for two reasons: one, the data is going to be self-reported, which means that individuals are not responding to a pre-set survey consisting of multiple choice or Likert Scaled responses. Rather, questions are open-ended and discussions take place that may not always fully reveal the minds of participants or provide the amount of insight and depth or quality of responses needed to have a robust data set. However, validity and reliability can be determined by looking to see if the methodology was adequately described to such an extent that researchers could repeat the steps taken with a similar sample and be relatively assured of obtaining similar results. So long as the study measured what it purported to measure it would contain validity and so long as it could be duplicated it would contain reliability. The methodology for this study was not described in much detail—for example, it was not clear how the interviews or focus groups were conducted other than by giving three basic open-ended questions that were used to guide discussions. The sample was adequately described, however, and the questions listed did deliver responses (which were quoted) that revealed validity in terms of the study measuring what it set out to measure.
7) Discuss any issues related to cultural competence that the evaluators may have needed to be sensitive to or address during the evaluation.
Issues related to cultural competence that the evaluators may have needed to be sensitive to or address during the evaluation may have arisen with respect to the ethnicity of the teens and educators, socio-economic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and family values. Not every teen is going to come from the same type of household and in some homes, discussions about sex may even be strongly forbidden while in other homes it might be something quite freely and openly discussed or accepted. Thus, cultural competency would be something the educators would need in order to know how to address various groups of students or individual teens coming from specific backgrounds. Some teens may be more open to discussing risky sexual behavior within a moral or religious context while others might be more comfortable discussing it from the perspective of health-related risks and the socio-economic impact of having a teen pregnancy.
As Sciolla, Ziajko and Salguero (2010) show, educators should have a sexual health culture competency when training to educate teens about the risks associated with sexual activity, as culture plays an important role in the lives of families and individuals and how they perceive themselves, others and the world around them. The more emphasis that can be placed on cultural understanding the more educators will be to connect with teens and supply them with meaningful information that is accepted by the target audience, understood and appreciated.
8) Develop a logic model for this program.
Attached in a separate .docx file.
References
Bandura, A. (2018). Toward a psychology of human agency: Pathways and reflections.  Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(2), 130-136.
Bickel, R., Weaver, S., Williams, T., & Lange, L. (1997). Opportunity, community, and teen pregnancy in an Appalachian state. The Journal of Educational Research, 90(3), 175-181.
Chapin, J. (2001). It won't happen to me: The role of optimistic bias in African American teens' risky sexual practices. Howard Journal of Communication, 12(1), 49-59.
Damon, W. (1984). Peer education: The untapped potential. Journal of applied developmental psychology, 5(4), 331-343.
Kerpelman, J. L., McElwain, A. D., Pittman, J. F., & Adler-Baeder, F. M. (2016). Engagement in risky sexual behavior: Adolescents’ perceptions of self and the parent–child relationship matter. Youth & Society, 48(1), 101-125.
Sciolla, A., Ziajko, L. A., & Salguero, M. L. (2010). Sexual health competence of international medical graduate psychiatric residents in the United States. Academic Psychiatry, 34(5), 361-368.
Stakic, S., Zielony, R., Bodiroza, A., & Kimzeke, G. (2003). Peer education within a frame of theories and models of behaviour change. Entre Nous: The European Magazine for Sexual and Reproductive Health, 56, 4-6.
Walsh-Buhi, E. R., Marhefka, S. L., Wang, W., Debate, R., Perrin, K., Singleton, A., ... & Ziemba, R. (2016). The impact of the Teen Outreach Program on sexual intentions and behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(3), 283-290.