Current Findings

We have completed all of our focus groups, including three pastor focus groups and seven parent focus groups. These focus groups will help us understand how parents and pastors view the impact of faith in the wellness decisions of religiously active youth. Now, we are screening the transcripts of each group to find recurrent themes and ideas the seem to be the strongest deterrents to engaging in risky sexual behavior. Once the analysis is complete, we can use the information to help churches understand the potential and limitations of current youth programs.

We have finished the second wave of the teen survey. All told, we have data on 617 youths from 20 congregations. Currently we are cleaning and uploading the data to a secure computer to make sure there are no errors. Once we finish this process, we will meet privately with steering committee members and senior pastors to discuss the findings. Some results from the first wave were made available to the public in May 2006. Click here to find out more!

(updated 10/11/2006)