Film Feasibility Study

Feasibility trial of a film-based educational intervention for

increasing boys’ and girls’ intentions to avoid teenage

pregnancy: Study protocol§

Maria Lohan a,

*, A´ ine Aventin a

, Lisa Maguire b

, Mike Clarke b

, Mark Linden a

,

Lisa McDaid c

a School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland/Scotland, United Kingdom b Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom c MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

1. Introduction

Teenage pregnancy remains a world-wide public health concern with rates in the US and UK among the highest in highincome

countries (Finer & Zolna, 2011; Lawlor & Shaw, 2004). While teenage pregnancies have been gradually decreasing

over the past decade, recent figures suggest pregnancy rates as high as 54.6 per 1000 women under 20 in the UK (ONS, 2012)

and 67.8 per 1000 in the US (Kost & Henshaw, 2012). As many as half of these pregnancies end in legal abortion, reflecting the

potentially unintended or unwanted nature of these conceptions (Kost & Henshaw, 2012; ONS, 2012). Although the life

course for teenaged parents is not universally negative (Bonell, 2004; Duncan, Jarrett, & Harvey, 2010), the social

disadvantage and exclusion that are linked to unintended teenage pregnancy are considered problematic (Harden, Brunton,

Fletcher, & Oakley, 2009). Unintended adolescent pregnancy can lead to considerable adverse health problems for teenagers

and their infants as well as generating emotional, social and economic costs for adolescents, their families and society (Beers

& Hollo, 2009).

International Journal of Educational Research 68 (2014) 35–45

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:

Received 4 July 2014

Received in revised form 13 August 2014

Accepted 16 August 2014

Available online 6 September 2014

Keywords:

Teenage pregnancy

Sex education

Sexual health promotion

Intervention...