Perceived knowledge and training needs in adolescent pregnancy prevention - Results from a multidisciplinary survey

Objectives To examine health care professionals' knowledge and interest in training in adolescent pregnancy prevention and whether an association exis ts between perceived knowledge and interest in training. Design: A cross-sectional mailed survey. Participants: Random, stratified sample design that identified 800 psycholo gists, 800 social workers, 1000 nurses, and 400 pediatricians from national professional membership lists. Response rate to the mailed survey was 51%. After removing respondents who did not currently work with adolescents, 12 42 surveys (41%) were available for analysts. Main Outcome Measures: Descriptive analyses were conducted on self-report d ata concerning perceived knowledge and interest in training about adolescen t pregnancy prevention separately for each of the 4 disciplines. Within dis ciplines, perceived knowledge and interest in training were correlated for each of 3 content areas (ie, sex education and contraceptive counseling, ad olescent pregnancy, and counseling after a negative pregnancy test) and for a summary measure of the content areas. Results: Less than half of the nursing, pediatrics, psychology, and social work professionals reported high perceived knowledge in the 3 content areas . Psychologists and social workers reported the lowest perceived knowledge. However, with the exception of psychologists, more than two thirds of the other respondents reported moderate or high interest in training in the 3 c ontent areas. Interest in training was not strongly correlated with perceiv ed knowledge within any discipline. Conclusions: The need to integrate psychosocial components into adolescent health care is a core assumption in the field, yet these data indicate that psychologists and social workers perceive low levels of knowledge and inte rest in training. These disciplines may benefit from more targeted professi onal training about their role in preventing adolescent pregnancy.