The Idaho Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program works to decrease teen pregnancy in Idaho by providing education and resources. Idaho’s teen pregnancy rate has been steadily declining. In 2007, the teen pregnancy rate among ages 15-19 reached a high of 49.5 pregnancies per 1,000 females. The 2021 teen pregnancy rate among youth ages 15-19 reached a low of 15.5 pregnancies per 1,000 females. While there are many factors that contributed to this decline, research indicates that access to medically accurate, evidence-based education and resources is an important factor for preventing teen pregnancies.
Families Talking Together (FTT) is a brief educational program for parents and caregivers that is facilitated by a trained health educator to prevent and/or reduce sexual risk behavior among adolescents. The program can be provided to parents and caregivers in one-on-one or small group sessions. The main component of Families Talking Together is a written program manual distributed to parents and caregivers. The FTT manual is designed to promote and build effective communication skills, relationships between parent or caregiver and their adolescents, develop successful monitoring strategies, and teaches adolescents assertiveness and refusal skills.
If you would like to learn more about Families Talking Together, contact us at idahofamilyplanning@dhw.idaho.gov.