Addressing Unintended Teen Pregnancy Through Reproductive Health Service Delivery by School Nurses and Physicians.

More neighborhood retail associated with lower obesity among New York City public high school students

Trends in cigarette, cigar, and smokeless tobacco use among New York City public high school youth smokers, 2001–2013

This study examines the impact of the condom availability program in New York City public high schools by comparing rates of sexual activity and condom use for New York students and similar students in Chicago. A total of 7119 students from 12 randomly selected New York schools and 5738 students from 10 Chicago schools participated in a cross-sectional survey. New York students, compared with Chicago students, reported equal rates of sexual activity but higher rates of condom use at last intercourse (odds ratio [OR] = 1.36). For higher-risk students (those with three or more sexual partners in the past 6 months), condom use was greater in New York (OR = 1.85) than in Chicago. Condom availability has a modest but significant effect on condom use and does not increase rates of sexual activity. These findings suggest that school-based condom availability can lower the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases for urban teenagers in the United States.

Contraception plays a key role in people’s realization of their sexual and reproductive health and well-being. The factors that shape contraceptive behaviors are complex and dynamic, and there is growing recognition among reproductive health service providers and advocates that contraceptive service delivery must prioritize patients’ values and preferences to help them exercise their reproductive autonomy.1 Similarly, research and public health surveillance systems that measure not only contraceptive use and method selection but also contraceptive preferences are best suited to evaluate service quality and track progress toward meeting the needs of reproductive-aged people. Building on findings from two previous Guttmacher Institute reports describing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data on contraceptive use in 20172 and 2019,3 this report uses data from the 2022 BRFSS to provide an expanded set of state-level estimates of contraceptive use and preferences. In 2022, scientists at Guttmacher collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to modify existing questions and include additional questions in the BRFSS family planning module. The resulting data set allows analysis not only of people’s primary contraceptive method use but also of multiple method use, overall contraceptive preferences and method-specific contraceptive preferences. Data collection for the 2022 BRFSS occurred during a pivotal time for reproductive health and rights due to the US Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the federal right to abortion. A wave of restrictive state laws and policies have followed, and as legislation concerning sexual and reproductive health care becomes increasingly politicized, state-level policies are key determinants of the quality and accessibility of contraceptive care.4 In this environment, state-level data, especially on person-centered measures of contraceptive preferences, are of paramount importance in understanding how shifts in reproductive health policy and service delivery are felt in the population. This report finds that contraceptive use is high across all reporting jurisdictions, but there is considerable variation in whether people are realizing preferences for which contraceptives they use or whether to use at all. People who report having used a method that requires some interaction with a provider, for example, are more likely than people using exclusively provider-independent or over-the-counter methods to report their current method as their preferred method of contraception. Throughout this report, we will explore how patterns of contraceptive use and preferences vary by type of method or combination of methods and jurisdiction. Given the elevated barriers to contraception that young people have historically experienced,5,6 we also highlight differences between two age-groups (18–24 and 25–49) where possible.*

Do Immigrants Differ from Migrants? Disentangling the Impact of Mobility on High School Completion and Performance

In the 1980-81 school year a Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP) was initiated in the New York City public school system. Economics had been taught (and required) at the twelfth grade level for many years, but now an effort would be made to infuse economics into the curriculum at every grade level. During the first year of DEEP, a pilot project was developed to put some economics into the fourth grade curriculum and into the eleventh grade American History course. In January of 1981 a two-day workshop was held for the participating teachers. In ten hours of classroom contact, the teachers received instruction in basic economics and in method of teaching economic concepts at their grade levels. Plans were made to test the effectiveness of the pilot program in eleventh grade American History classes. The high school teachers received copies of the manuals Teaching Economics in American History and Strategies for Teaching Economics: United States History (Secondary), published by the Joint Council on Economic Education. Arrangements were made to administer the Test of Economic Literacy to experimental and control classes in four high schools. One school was dropped from the experiment because the teacher of the experimental classes was promoted to an administrative position and his replacement did not feel qualified to carry out the plans to incorporate economics into the American History course. In the three remaining schools two or three control classes were to be compared with the two experimental classes. An experienced high school teacher served as proctor and test administrator. The students in both the control and experimental classes took Form A of the TEL during their first class session of the spring 1981 term. The same form was administered as a post-test at the end of the spring semester. Although the students in the experimental and control classes seemed to reflect the variety of racial, ethnic, national, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds found in New York City schools, they were not randomly selected. Intact classes had to be used, and the participating students can best be categorized as a convenience sample. It is not claimed, therefore, that the participants adequately represent the total population of eleventh graders in New York City public high schools. Two control classes were dropped from the experiment because the proctor reported serious discipline problems during the administration of the

To meet the needs of female adolescents from low-income urban areas for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care, vouchers providing free-of-charge access to SRH care at 19 primary care clinics were distributed in Managua, Nicaragua. These vouchers substantially increased the use of services, demonstrating that many adolescents are willing to use such services, if readily accessible. The voucher redemption made it possible to identify the nature of existing, but largely unmet, needs for SRH care. The medical files from 3301 consultations with female adolescents were analysed using descriptive statistical methods and multiple logistic regression. Female adolescents presented SRH problems that merited medical attention. The mean number of problems presented was 1.5 per consultation: 34% of the vouchers were used for contraceptives, 31% for complaints related to sexually transmitted infection (STI) or reproductive tract infection (RTI), 28% for advice/counselling, 28% for antenatal check-up and 18% for pregnancy testing. A new category of health care users emerged: sexually active girls who were neither pregnant nor mothers and who sought contraceptives or STI/RTI treatment. Contraceptive use doubled among the sexually active non-pregnant voucher redeemers. Consultation with a female doctor younger than 36 years was associated with a higher chance of having contraceptives prescribed. Accessible and appropriate SRH care has the potential to make an important contribution to the increased contraceptive use, decreased risk of unwanted teenage pregnancies and decreased prevalence of STIs/RTIs among underserved adolescents. Once adolescents access the services, providers have a crucial role in ensuring current and continuing needs are met.

Age of entry and the high school performance of immigrant youth

Relationship between retail food outlets near public schools and adolescent obesity in New York City.

Studies across fields such as science education, health education, health behavior, and curriculum studies identify a persistent gap between the aims of the school curriculum and its impact on students’ thinking and acting about the real-life decisions that affect their lives. The present study presents a different story from this predominant pattern in the literature. Through a year-long ethnographic investigation of a health-focused New York City public high school’s HIV/AIDS and sex education program, this study illustrates a case in which 20 12th grade students respond positively to their education on these topics and largely assert that school significantly influences their perspectives and actions related to sexual health decision-making. This paper presents the following interpretation of this positive influence: school culture influences these students’ perspectives and decisions around sexual health by contributing to the formation of students’ identities. This paper further shows how science learning in particular becomes important for students in relation to decision-making when it is linked to issues of identity. These findings suggest that, in addition to attending to the design of classroom curriculum, HIV/AIDS and sex education researchers and curriculum developers (as well as those in science education focusing on other controversial science topics) might also explore the kinds of relational and school-wide factors that potentially influence students’ identities, decisions, and responses to school learning.

Stability in Student and Teacher Characteristics in the First Ten Years: A Study of Small High Schools in New York City

Limited research has taken the contingency perspective to analyze the conditions under which the impact of top leader turnover on public organizations’ performance may vary. Using panel data from New York City public high schools, this study not only examines the main effect of principal turnover on schools’ performance but also how the main effect depends on schools’ baseline performance. Two estimation strategies—namely fixed effect models and Blundell–Bond dynamic panel models—find a consistent pattern that leader turnover is negatively associated with subsequent organizational performance, and the negative impact is stronger in low-performing organizations than it is in high-performing organizations. This study contributes to the literature by showing that the disruptive effects of leader turnover outweigh the adaptive effects in some public organizations. Moreover, the contingency perspective highlights the role of pre-turnover performance in moderating the effect of leader turnover.

While demand for youth violence prevention programs increases, the ability of the school-day schedule to accommodate their time requirements has diminished. Viable school-based prevention programs must strike a balance between brevity and effectiveness. This article reports results from an effectiveness trial of a 12-session curriculum-based universal violence prevention program that promotes healthy conflict resolution skills among urban adolescents. Using a review of program record data and a multisite quasi-experimental study design, we examined the effectiveness of a New York City-based violence prevention program entitled the Violence Prevention project (VPP) optimized to meet school needs. We analyzed survey data from 1112 9th- and 10th-grade students in 13 New York City public high schools across 4 consecutive school years. Both participants and nonparticipants were surveyed. Review of program record data indicated that the program was implemented with acceptable fidelity to the core component structure, and that participant responsiveness to the model was high. Multilevel modeling indicated that VPP participation was protective for academic self-concept and promoted conflict resolution skills. Findings indicate that semester-long violence prevention programs optimized to meet the needs of a typical high school can be effective at promoting healthy conflict resolution skills in urban adolescents.

To determine the point prevalences of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components among healthy weight, overweight, and obese inner-city public high school students, to compare the prevalences of MetS when using 2 different definitions (one with the impaired fasting glucose [IFG] level and the other with a homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR] of 3.99 or higher to define the glucose regulation component), and to compare the degree to which HOMA-IR and fasting glucose level are associated with the other MetS components. Cross-sectional analysis. Two New York City public high schools, from April 2008 through August 2011. Convenience sample of 1185 high school youth, comprising predominantly Hispanic and African American students from low-income households, participating in The Banishing Obesity and Diabetes in Youth Project, a medical screening and education program. Prevalences of the following individual MetS components: IFG threshold, HOMA-IR, hypertension, central adiposity, hypertriglyceridemia, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Rates of MetSIFG and MetSHOMA-IR were also assessed. MetSIFG and MetSHOMA-IR point prevalences were both 0.3% in the healthy weight group; they were 2.6% and 5.9%, respectively, in the overweight group and were 22.9% and 35.1%, respectively, in the obese group (P < .05 for both). An IFG threshold of 100 mg/dL or higher was found in 1.0% of participants, whereas a HOMA-IR of 3.99 or higher was found in 19.5% of participants. An elevated HOMA-IR is much more sensitive than an IFG threshold in identifying adolescents with metabolic dysregulation. Using a HOMA-IR threshold of 3.99 identifies more youth with MetS than using an IFG threshold of 100 mg/dL. In addition to increasing the sensitivity of MetS detection, HOMA-IR has a much higher association with the other MetS components than the IFG threshold and may better reflect a unified underlying pathologic process useful to identify youth at risk for disease.

Are all schools created equal? Learning environments in small and large public high schools in New York City