About Focus on Youth with ImPACT

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Brief History

  • The original research took place in the early 1990s with youth from low-income communities in Baltimore, MD.
  • The curriculum is grounded in Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), a social cognitive theory.
  • Ethnographic and survey research and community input drove the process to ensure developmental and cultural relevance.
  • 383 African-American youth ages 9-15 participated in the study.
  • The study was conducted at community based sites such as community and recreation centers.
  • The researchers identified that the effectiveness of FOY only extended out to 24 months. They were interested in achieving greater long-term effects from the intervention. Thus, the parent component, Informed Parents and Children Together (ImPACT) was added in 1992.
  • Combined, the interventions met necessary criteria to be considered an intervention with (Best Evidence of Efficacy)  by CDC’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis Project.
  • Through the collaborative effort of CDC, Focus on Kids’ original researchers, and ETR Associates, Focus on Youth was added to CDC’s compendium of DEBIs in April 2008.

Focus on Kids Outcomes

  • At six-month follow-up, participants in the original program were more likely than youth in the control group to use condoms if they were sexually active (85% vs. 61%)
  • At six months and 12 months, youth in the randomized parent study reported significantly lower rates of sex, sex without a condom, alcohol and cigarette use.
  • It has been adapted and implemented in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Washington State, rural West Virginia, the Bahamas, Namibia, China and Vietnam.

Next: Focus on Youth with ImPACT Core Elements and Key Characteristics