Providing Insight into how the Safer Sex Intervention Works: Understanding Experiences of Youth and Health Educators

Form Approved

OMB No. 0990-0421

Exp. Date 07/03/2017

Hennepin County

Providing Insight into how the Safer Sex Intervention Works

Focus Group Discussion Guide for Use with Program Participants

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Instructions: Program participants may not participate in the focus group if the assent/consent form is not signed and submitted. Assent forms will be collected and stored, but identifying information on participants will not be collected during the focus group discussion. Introduce yourself, explain your role, purpose of the focus group, ground rules for discussion, and review information (e.g., risks & benefits, confidentiality) contained in the Consent Form.

Icebreaker/introductions

A: Types of Birth Control: We would like to understand your thinking about the choices you (and young women your age) have when it comes to preventing pregnancy.

Probes: ? Do you worry about getting pregnant when you don’t plan to get pregnant?

What kinds of birth control are you aware of? Are there birth control methods you know about that you don’t have to use every time you have sex, or don’t have to take every day? (Probing for knowledge of LARCs) How did you find out about them?

B: Pros and Cons of Types of Birth Control: Let’s talk about what you think are the pros and cons of different types of birth control

Probes: Do you think some types of birth control are better than others – which ones and why? Advantages and disadvantages? Problems with access, cost, side-effects? What do you know about them? What do you hear from your friends, or from media, or other sources? What have you been told about the different kinds of birth control by nurses, doctors, and teachers

C. Condoms and STIs

Probes: What do you know about STIs (that is, how likely do you think you are to contract one, the potential consequences)? What, if anything do you know about HPV and its potential consequences? How much at risk do you think you are for contracting an STI? How important is it to use condoms even if you are using other contraceptive methods? Are there times someone should use a condom and times when they don't have to? If you think the dual method is important, what gets in the way of using it – that is, insisting on condoms even if you are using other birth control methods to avoid pregnancy?

D: Decision-Making: Do you feel that you are the decision-maker when it comes to using birth control? What about when it comes to using a condom?

Probes: Are these decisions you would take by yourself or do you talk to your partner about them?

Abt Associates Inc. Safer Sex Intervention: Focus Group Discussion Guide for Use with Program Participants