Becoming Responsible Teens: Promoting the Health of Adolescents in Foster Care

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Abstract
BACKGROUND: As a result of traumatic early histories, female adolescents in foster care are at great risk for contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Becoming a Responsible Teen (BART) curriculum on adolescents’ condom awareness and HIV risk knowledge. BART is an 8-week group intervention that combines education and behavior skills training with content on topics such as sexual assertion, refusal, problem solving, and risk recognition. DESIGN: Adolescents living in residential foster care participated in the BART intervention. The study used a pretest/posttest design with one group. FINDINGS: Preintervention and postintervention measures of outcomes of condom awareness and HIV risk knowledge improved significantly after the BART group intervention. CONCLUSION: Adolescent females in foster care have experienced multiple early adversities and are a high-risk group for sexually transmitted diseases. BART increased the adolescents knowledge related to condom use and HIV risk and encouraged participants to spread the word to other adolescents.