Attacking the Personal Fable

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Abstract
The premise behind this study was that teens engage in early sex because they believe the “personal fable” concerning pregnancy: “It can't happen to me.” Because role-play is a powerful tool for attitude change, the basic intervention consisted of teens enacting the consequences of teen pregnancy. Ss were 267 9th graders (both male and female) in a high-risk urban high school. Factor analysis of a questionnaire concerning sexual attitudes yielded orthogonal attitudes toward (a) abstaining from teen sexual behavior, and (b) use of contraceptives. ANOVAs indicated that, compared to a control group, both role-playing the consequences of teen pregnancy, and watching videos of friends role-playing, significantly increased the favorable attitude toward abstinence in girls but not boys. However, these interventions did not affect attitudes toward contraceptive use.