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This is an innovative and convenient way for parents and youth to listen and talk about sexual health. Many parents were receptive and listened with their child, which resulted in an increase in communication and family support. To reduce sexual risk behavior among adolescents by giving parents tools to deliver primary prevention to their children.

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The program consists of five 2. Topics included risk awareness, positive parenting practices and sexual communication. The program is now being implemented in Kenya and seven other African countries. It has also been conducted in Puerto Rico and 15 other sites around the US at many different venues. Results have shown that talking with their child after the program has become easier for parents with the knowledge and skills learned. To reduce adolescent truancy, substance abuse, and sexual risk behaviors. Focus on Kids Plus ImPACT consists of 8 one and a half hour sessions and an optional day long retreat that aims to involve parents in sex ed while helping them communicate more with their child.

Homework assignments help parents become involved with classroom assignments. Session activities include role-playing, videos, small group discussions and a community project. One session is devoted to parents and children emphasizing communication through activities. An evaluation of youth in Baltimore found that after six months, youth who participated in the retreat with their parents reported significantly lower rates of sexual intercourse and unprotected sex compared to youth in only the Focus on Kids program without the parent component. They were also less likely to report other risky behaviors like alcohol and drug use.

Homework assignments are included to involve parents. Parents are given a post-program questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

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Then in 8 th grade, students are given five sessions in a week to continue their learning about sexual health. Sexually active students were more likely than the control group to use condoms and showed greater intention to use them in the future.


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YAPP gives parents a way to become involved through homework assignments and an optional workshop to understand what the students will be learning. The program aims to educate students in their junior high school years with all elements of sexual health. To teach adolescents to resist peer pressure, make good decisions, and negotiate safer sex behaviors; the program encourages adolescents to talk to parents about abstinence and birth control. Reducing the Risk consists of 16 sessions each 45 minutes and an optional 90 minute class that includes information on abstinence and contraception.

The program is implemented in high schools for youths specifically in ninth and tenth grade.


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  6. The evaluated program took place in 13 California high schools with 1, students. There was a 24 percent decrease in the initiation of sexual intercourse as opposed to the control group. There was also a significant decrease in unprotected sex. At pretest, 11 percent in both control and treatment groups had engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse and at posttest 13 percent of treatment group as opposed to 23 percent in the control group had unprotected sex.

    The program was also implemented in Arkansas with young people participating with same outcome occurrence. This included a significant increase in communication with parents, a delayed initiation of sexual intercourse and in addition, increased use of contraception. Two curriculum activities required students to talk with their parents about abstinence and contraception. Both students and parents reported that the assignments enabled them to talk with each other more easily about these topics. Six months after the intervention, program youth were significantly more likely than control youth to have ever discussed abstinence or contraception with parents.

    Additionally, youth delayed the initiation of sexual intercourse and there was an increase in protected sex among the sexually active. Parents serve an important role in this program , discussing with their child topics learned in the lessons. To teach high school students that using protection against pregnancy and STDs is a safer choice , and choosing not to have intercourse is the safest choice. There are 20 sequential sessions for ninth and tenth graders. Parents are involved throughout the program through newsletters and homework assignments.

    In California and Texas 20 high schools with a total of 3, ninth grade students participated. After a 31 month evaluation there was an increase in condom use 1. As a result, parent-child communication increased. Journal of Adolescent Health ; 26 4: Teen Pregnancy — United States, — Protecting Adolescents from harm: Relationship between adolescent parental communication and initiation of first intercourse by adolescents. Patterns of condom use among adolescents: Am J Public Health ; J Adolesc Research ; 7: Parenting processes related to sexual risk-taking behaviors of adolescent males and females.

    J Adoles ; National Survey of Adolscents and Young Adults: Sexual Health Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experiences. Henry Kaiser Foundation, J Adolesc Health , Talking to Parents, Healthy Teens: Offical Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Saving Sex for Later: An Evaluation of a Parent Education Intervention. Overview of Parents Matter! The TLC project had four main findings. Firstly, it found that most social workers engaged well with children and used a variety of methods and skills in their practice.

    There were also occasions when social workers seemed unwilling to communicate except through talking. Few social workers had their own play materials and when they did, they had usually paid for these themselves. Secondly, all the social workers who took part in the research knew that communication with children is important and necessary.

    Thirdly, children and young people had a range of understandings about their encounters with social workers. Fourthly, the research demonstrated that each encounter with a child or young person was unique to the individuals involved and was formed within a particular time, space and context.

    Finally, the research demonstrated that it was difficult for social workers to build and sustain such protective relationships when bureaucratic requirements for example, key performance indicators, dominate, and when there are inadequate opportunities for support and supervision of practitioners. Visit the TLC website to find a range of resources that have been developed with social workers to help social workers develop their own practice in this area.

    The TLC research indicated that there is a mismatch between what statutory child and family social workers want to do ie effective practice and what they are able to do, for reasons that are structural, practice-related and individual. It seemed from the study that there is neither appetite nor need for more legislation and policy change; on the contrary, it was acknowledged that the legislative and policy context if anything is already crowded. Instead, the implications moving forward, taking the TLC findings and all the other research evidence together should be to seek to target things that get in the way of good communication with children, and, at the same time, to build protective factors that enable child and family social workers to do their jobs well.

    This suggestion mirrors previous findings from recent knowledge exchange projects conducted by local authority practitioners and academic researchers in Scotland, including the Engaging Involuntary Service Users project Smith et al, and the Changing Culture in Children and Families Social Work project Macrae et al, Comments represent views of reviewers and do not necessarily represent those of their organisations.

    Iriss would like to thank the reviewers for taking the time to reflect and comment on this Insight. Don't miss out on our latest news, resources and events. Join our mailing list. Skip to main navigation. Improving lives through knowledge, evidence and innovation. Breadcrumb Home Resources Insights Social workers' communication with children and yo Social workers' communication with children and young people in practice.

    By Dr Fiona Morrison. Published on 11 Nov Key points Communication with children and young people is at the heart of child and family social work Communication involves social workers using a range of methods and techniques like touch, play, signing, body language, writing, drawing, activities, using symbols and other specialist tools to engage and communicate with children and young people Social workers need to use their skills sensitively and creatively to make spaces for communication with children and young people Research shows how the context, organisation and systems of social work can impact negatively on the ways in which social workers engage and communicate with children and young people The relationship between children, young people and their social workers is more important than communication itself Introduction Communication with children and young people can take many forms including: What does existing research on social work practice tell us about communication?

    Context, organisation and systems matter There is a body of research that shows how the context, organisation and systems of social work can impact negatively on the ways in which social workers engage and communicate with children and young people. Emotions matter Ruch adds another perspective to this in her study of six social workers reflecting on their practice in relation to communication with children. Broadhurst and Mason Broadhurst and Mason draw from a small scale ethnography carried out in England to assert that more attention must be given to face-to-face practice in social work research and that the interactions of the social worker is crucial to this.

    The research set out to answer four key questions: What are social workers observed to do when they communicate with children and young people in a range of settings and with a range of aims?

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    How do practitioners experience and understand their communication? How do children and young people experience and understand their relationships with social workers? What factors best facilitate communication between social worker practitioners and children and young people? What are the policy and practice implications from research?

    Practice should be imbued throughout with a respectful, strengths-based yet realistic approach to families and to children. Many of the social work offices we carried out our research in seemed to be devoid of children or the work that social workers do with them. Investment is needed to ensure that social workers have easy access to resources for carrying out direct work with children. Further consideration is also needed as to the places and venues in which social workers meet with children. There needs to be easily accessible and suitable places available that allow children and parents to have confidential discussions with social workers.

    Greater attention needs to be given to how the environment of social work offices impact on practice. There needs to be more opportunity for social workers to discuss their own practice in communicating with children. For example, the advent of agile working can make it difficult for social workers to have conversations with colleagues, and debrief following difficult visits with children and families.

    Ways of raising the public profile of child and family social workers are required, so that there is greater understanding of the complex and difficult nature of statutory child and family social work. There needs to be ways of taking parents with us more readily — building trust between parents and statutory agencies, while at the same time, not losing sight of children, their needs and vulnerabilities.

    Adequate structures and supports to enable social workers to do their jobs well need to be in place. To achieve this, social work agencies must become learning organisations in which there are opportunities for social workers to get peer support from their colleagues and regular supervision that focuses on professional development and case monitoring, as well as opportunities to engage in research, writing and further education and training. Practitioners, for their part, should be encouraged to take charge of their own learning and development needs, including seeking to build professional confidence in themselves and others.

    Key points

    Children and young people involved with social work tend to have lots of professional involved in their lives. Foregrounding co-presence in situated practice— why face-to-face practice matters, British Journal of Social Work , 44, 3, Butler I and Roberts G Social work with children and families 2nd ed , London: Palgrave Ferguson H What social workers do in performing child protection work: Using ethnographic and mobile methods to understand encounters between social workers, children and families, British Journal of Social Work , 46, 1, —68 Ferguson H b How children become invisible in child protection work: Findings from research into day-to-day social work practice, British Journal of Social Work , Advance Access, published June 30, Killen K How far have we come in dealing with the emotional challenge of abuse and neglect?

    A systems analysis, London: Final report — A child-centred system, London: Department for Education Pinkney S Participation and emotions: Troubling encounters between children and social welfare professionals, Children and Society , 25, 1, Ruch G Helping children is a human process: Getting to the heart of practice, London: Changing organisational culture in children and families social work through critical reflection groups — insights from Bourdieu, British Journal of Social Work , accepted 2 June , first published online July 10, doi: