¡Cuídate!: Impact Findings from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Replication Study (Research Brief)

This research brief highlights findings from the evaluation of ¡Cuídate!, an HIV/AIDS prevention program that uses an approach culturally tailored to Latino youth. The study examined data from three different replications of ¡Cuídate!, pooling the data to examine the overall program impact. Overall, ¡Cuídate! did not have an impact on sexual activity, contraceptive use, or pregnancy at either the 6 month or 18 month follow-up periods. However, exploratory analyses indicated some significant subgroup and site level differences. After 6 months, youth who were sexually experienced at baseline were more likely to have had recent sexual intercourse and White youth were more likely to report having recent oral sex and oral sex without a condom. After 18 months, there were no negative impacts on any subgroup. In addition, there was a positive effect on pregnancy in one of the three sites: program participants in the La Alianza site were less likely to report a pregnancy than non-participants. There were some differences between the La Alianza site and the other two sites that could help explain the different impact. Youth in this site were, on average, slightly older and more sexually experienced than youth in the other two sites and La Alianza served a more ethnically diverse group of Hispanic youth than the other two sites. Across all three replications, the program was delivered with fidelity and program attendance was relatively high.