Program
Center for Research on Adolescent Health & Development
The Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development integrates research, training, and advocacy in adolescent sexual health and rights with two primary goals. First, we promote better sexuality education and communication for youth and parents, with special attention to the sexual health needs and rights of foster youth and other underserved populations. Second--providing a critical foundation for the first--we work to enhance the field's understanding, critical appraisal, and appropriate use of social science theory, research evidence, and rigorous scientific inquiry.
Projects
Adolescent Sexual Health Policy Project
This grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provides support for the Adolescent Sexual Health Policy Project to enhance the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents in California and the United States through policy-oriented research, research critique, and policy advocacy.
No Time for Complacency
No Time For Complacency is a research and policy advocacy initiative to educate California policy makers and opinion leaders about teen pregnancy prevention and other adolescent sexual health outcomes and policies and to provide strategic research-based advocacy materials to local and state level advocates for adolescent sexual health policy. Funding is provided by The California Wellness Foundation.
Planned Parenthood-Los Angeles Sexuality Education Initiative Randomized Evaluation
The Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development, in collaboration with the USC Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, is conducting a formative and randomized evaluation of the Planned Parenthood - Los Angeles Sexuality Education Initiative. This evidence-informed, rights-based initiative includes a 12-session classroom curriculum, together with parent education, peer advocacy nd clinical services components.
Sexuality, Health and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Science Research
This project provides research, graduate training and strategic communications to promote (1) a more scientific view of evidence and its use among researchers, policy shapers and curriculum developers; (2) a reconceptualization of sexuality education within a holistic sexual health and rights framework; and (3) further analysis, development and dissemination of existing and new models of sexuality education. Funding is provided by the Ford Foundation.