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Evaluation of Stepping Stones

Who can join

Ages 12 to 22 · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome

Inclusion Criteria:

* At risk for or involved in the legal or child welfare systems
* Report ever having vaginal and/or anal sex and plan to have sex in the next six months
* Comfortable reading, speaking, and writing in English

Exclusion Criteria:

* Currently trying to start a pregnancy
* Currently in jail or being detained in a facility
* Enrolled in an ongoing PRG-run TPP study, the No Baby No study, or the Yes \& Know study
* Living in regions where the FLASH curriculum is widely implemented (King County, WA, Ramsey County, MN, Hennepin County, MN)
* Identified as fraudulent (only for individuals recruited online)

About the study

The goal of this randomized trial is to learn if the Stepping Stones (StSt) intervention has a positive impact on the sexual health and relationship behaviors of sexually active youth between the ages of 12 and 22 years old who are at risk for or involved in the legal or child welfare systems. The primary research questions it aims to answer are:

* Three months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's receipt of sexually transmitted infection testing in the past four months? * Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's frequency of having vaginal and anal sex without condoms in the past four months? * Nine months after being offered the intervention, does StSt impact youth's perpetration of emotional abuse in the past four months?

Researchers will compare participants randomized to receive StSt (treatment group) to participants randomized to receive a control condition that contains no sexual or reproductive health information (control group).

Participants randomized to the treatment group will be offered StSt as an in-person or virtual, individual-based intervention delivered over four sessions during a 6-8 week period. Participants randomized to the control group will be offered a virtually delivered control condition.

What is being tested

• Stepping Stones (StSt) (behavioral)
• Like (behavioral)

Sponsor: The Policy & Research Group · Participants: 650 · Started: Sep 16, 2024

Contact the study team

• Hilary Demby, MPH · Phone: 504-865-545
• Kelly Burgess, MPH · Phone: 504-865-545

Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT06574217

Locations in the U.S.

From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.