Psychological Support Program for Teen Moms, Essay Example

In my psychological support program for teen moms between the ages of 12 to 19, I focus on short term, medium term, and long term care that will help their self-esteem and increase their likelihood to live happily, healthily, and as responsible mothers. The short term outcomes of this intervention include finding pregnant teens who are willing to undergo intervention, giving ease of the worries of pregnant teens and improving their current health status and that of their unborn babies, and giving teen moms a sense of self-respect and self-dependability.

To identify pregnant teens who are willing to undergo intervention, I will contact high schools and clinics in the community to determine the prevalence of teens who fall into this category. I will then visit these locations and explain the plan for my support program to counselors and physicians to determine the number of candidates in each location. Once permission is obtained to contact my target group, I will inform them of the advantages of the support program and the related goals they can expect to achieve by participating. To give them ease and a sense of self-respect, I will initiate a group therapy session with the purpose of allowing the pregnant teens to openly discuss the difficulties they have had so they can relate to one another and share triumphs. After introductions are made, the focus of the group discussion will be to allow them to come to the realization that this situation is not their fault and to recognize the positives that can come along with the experience. To improve their current health status, they will be allowed the opportunity to talk to volunteer nurses qualified to offer health advice and to social workers that can assist them in acquiring health insurance if they do not have it already.

To evaluate these outcomes, I will issue a survey to participants of the group therapy session that will allow them to rate their ease, sense of self-respect, and sense of self-dependability in the form of a survey. To determine the success of my ability to find pregnant teens who are willing to undergo the intervention, I will compare my recruitment numbers to similar programs. Lastly, to evaluate their improvement in health status, I will compare the numbers of individuals who had health insurance before and after the intervention and then determine how many have increased access to health advice and whether they are using it by collecting information from the volunteer nurses. The sample questions that would reflect the success of these interventions include “Rate your sense of self-respect before the program on a scale of 1-10. Do you believe that the group discussions have helped increase your self-respect? Rate your current sense of self-respect on a scale of 1-10.”, “Did you have health insurance before this program? Do you have it now?”, and “How did you hear of this program? If a clinic or a counselor recommended you, please list their name.”

The medium term outcomes of this program will be to provide better options of solving problems among pregnant teens, developing programs to ensure safe and healthy infants, and improved competence of teen moms to handle their problems and extend their help with their mentor. These outcomes will be achieved primarily by health counseling, group discussions with volunteers, and the development of a mentoring program to further the client’s ability to access care and advice. To determine the success of these outcomes, I will issue surveys to the participants. Sample questions that will be asked include “Do you believe that the group discussion have provided you with the ability to solve your problems? Is the advice offered from your peers in the group helpful? If so, explain how in one to two sentences.”, “List 3 ways you can ensure the health of your newborn child.”, and “Rate how effective your mentorship has been on a scale of 1-10”.

The long term outcomes of this program will be to develop teen moms who are capable of handling the challenges of young parenthood, giving teen parents a sense of responsibility, developing individual life plans, and continuing to receive mentoring and support after the program has ended. The questions that will be asked to assess the achievement of these outcomes include “Rate your ability to solve problems regarding the challenges of young parenthood before the program on a scale of 1-10. Rate your current ability to solve problems regarding the challenges of young parenthood on a scale of 1-10.”, “Rate how responsible you felt before the program on a scale of 1-10. Rate your current sensation of responsibility on a scale of 1-10.”, “Have you developed an individual life plan? Briefly describe it below.”, and after participation in the program has ended for at least a month, I will issue a follow-up survey that asks “Are you still in contact with your mentor? How often do you speak” and this question will be repeated every few months.

Ultimately, outcome evaluations are necessary because they will help provide information that will allow the intervention program to be adjusted in a manner that works best for the participants and takes maximal advantage of the resources available. When the intervention begins, it will likely occur on a trial basis and success of the program as marked by achievement of the outcomes will indicate whether or not it would be reasonable to recruit more participants and build the intervention program on a larger scale.

The relevant stakeholders that my intervention is accountable includes volunteers, members of the community, mentors, hospitals, educational institutions, and teen moms who have successfully completed the program. The volunteers will be interested in determining whether there is a high level of interest in the program to determine whether it is worthwhile to continue volunteering. Therefore, former participants will be asked “Do you know of anyone that would benefit from this program? If so, please provide their contact information.” Mentors will be interested in the success of their mentees, so the participants will be asked “Rate the value of your mentor on a scale of 1-10”. Members of the community ultimately provide funding to the program, so the survey results will be analyzed to determine whether the intervention has improved the situation of these individuals and a report will be compiled to denote the various improvements. Educational institutions will be interested in the success of this program due to the numbers of pregnant teens that attend their high schools. As a result, each participant will be asked “Which high school do you currently attend?”. To benefit hospitals, participants will be asked “Which hospital have you chosen for your birth? Why do you feel that this is the right choice?”. To benefit other pregnant teens who may benefit from the program, I will ask each participate to “List one thing you enjoyed most about the program.”.

To determine the success of this intervention program, 50 pregnant teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 with low self-esteem will be recruited. 50 participants were selected because this is a preliminary study to determine whether an intervention will be successful. 25 participants will be placed into the intervention group and 25 into the control group. A comparison of the self-esteem levels of both groups using this number will likely yield statistically significant results if this program is successful. Participants will be assigned to groups using randomization. Each participant’s name will be assigned a number using Microsoft Excel’s random number generator; participants that were assigned 1 will be in the experimental group while participants that were assigned 2 will be in the control group. Low self-esteem will be determined based on surveys that potential subjects will be issued. If they rate their self-esteem as a 4 or lower on a scale of 1-10, they will be considered eligible for this study. Self-esteem will be considered the dependent variable. Participants will be issued a survey monthly regarding their self-esteem level monthly and will be tracked until the birth of the child, follow by as twelve month investigational period plus a three month follow-up. The program objective is to increase self-esteem to 7 or above. A student’s t-test will be performed to determine the association between self-esteem and the intervention.

The consent document will be appears as follows:

Dear [Write Name Here],

Your doctor our counselor has recommended you for participation in our experimental psychological support program. You qualify for this program because you are currently pregnant or have mothered a child and are between the ages of 12 and 19. To participate in this study, you will take a survey to assess your attitude and outlook on life. Medical, financial, educational, and community resources will be provided to you while on the study, free of charge, if you are selected for the intervention group. You are not required to participate in this study and are able to stop the study at any time without any negative consequences. It is not anticipated that there will be any negative outcomes of the study. You will be assigned to either the study group and receive the intervention or serve as a control group and not receive the intervention. Your participation in either group is decided by chance and neither the study coordinators nor your doctor or counselor can change this. If you understand this document fully, please sign below. If you are under the age of 18, please speak to your parent or guardian about this opportunity and receive their signature next to yours. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). For any questions, please contact the study coordinator at [phone number] or [e-mail],

References

Bronte-Tinkew, J., Allen, T., & Joyner, K. (2008) Institutional Review Boards (IRBs): What are they and why are they important? Atlantic Philanthropies.

Kline, R. B. (2004). Effect Size Estimation in One-Way Designs. In , Beyond significance testing: Reforming data analysis methods in behavioral research (pp. 163-202). Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association

Pashler, H. (2002) Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology. New York: Wiley