Study Details

A separate study by the same group of researchers evaluated the effectiveness of Families Talking Together (FTT) relative to another teen pregnancy prevention program, Making a Difference (MAD). The study used a randomized controlled trial involving Latino and African American adolescents from five New York City middle schools. The adolescents and their mothers were randomly assigned to one of three research groups: (1) a group receiving FTT alone, (2) a group receiving MAD alone, or (3) a group receiving both FTT and MAD together. The programs were offered after school and on weekends, outside of regular school hours. Surveys were administered immediately before random assignment (baseline) and 12 months later.

The study found that at the time of the 12-month follow-up survey, there was no statistically significant difference in rates of sexual intercourse between students in the group that received FTT and those in the group that received MAD. The study also examined program impacts on frequency of intercourse. Findings for this outcome were not considered for the review because they did not meet the review evidence standards. Specifically, findings were reported only for subgroups of youth defined by sexual activity at follow-up. Program impacts were also examined on measures of mother-adolescent communication, maternal monitoring and supervision, perceived maternal expertise and trustworthiness, satisfaction with mother-adolescent relationship, and social desirability tendencies. Findings for these outcomes were not considered for the review because they fell outside the scope of the review.