Replication of a community-based multicomponent teen pregnancy prevention model: Realities and challenges

Health education curricula and the delivery of specific health services hav e been evaluated as to their replicability in other settings. Formal studie s to evaluate replication of multicomponent community-based program models are scarce. Moreover, the literature does not address the challenges in imp lementing complex program models and documenting replication. This article describes an initiative to transport and replicate the School/Community Sex ual Risk Reduction Model, created in South Carolina, in three Kansas commun ities over a 4-year period. Objective and subjective assessments of achievi ng fidelity to the model core components were determined as was a descripti on of factors that enhance or inhibit replication efforts. Assessing replic ation will be improved when detailed monitoring and process evaluation is i n place in the development of the original program and in the replication e ffort.