Love Notes 4.0 SRA EBP (ages 14-19)
In 13 lessons, youth learn more about themselves: how their past has shaped the present and how to make decisions on what they want for their own future. They learn what healthy relationships are and are not while building a set of skills for choosing friends and partners, and for developing and maintaining healthy relationships, including evidence-based communication and conflict management skills. Parents and trusted adult connection activities offer conversation starters on healthy relationships and on the benefits of leaving sex out of their youthful relationships.
Throughout the lessons, youth explore the benefits of sexual delay for achieving future goals. They learn to make clear decisions about relationships and about sex, and they practice skills to assert intentions, respond to pressure situations, and change course.
Whether or not they are currently sexually active, youth who participate in Love Notes SRA become empowered to identify their sexual values and intentions in a much deeper way while acquiring the critical thinking and communication skills to navigate their romantic lives. Love Notes 4.0 integrates healthy relationship skills with pregnancy prevention and workforce readiness and uses practical strategies for motivating change. It features:
- A realistic context for learning that incorporates language, values, and scenarios that is relevant to this audience.
- An appeal to aspirations that helps youth cultivate a personal vision for love, intimacy, and success.
- Important motivations for behavioral change, such as exploring from a child’s perspective the benefits of planning for a child and the future.
- Empowerment to achieve healthy relationships at home and at work through both knowledge and practical skills.
- Intentional exercises in every lesson to encourage participating young people to connect with caring, trusted adults—a proven protective factor.
Love Notes SRA’s Core Messages
- Love Notes SRA has a strong and consistent message on the benefits of sexual delay and risk avoidance, as well as the possibility and benefits of changing course and resetting one’s sexual boundaries.
- It communicates these messages through believable and culturally relevant examples (narratives, stories, media).
- It does not normalize teen sexual activity, nor does it preach or shame.
- The lessons are guided by the assumption that youth need encouragement to define a context for sex that is personally meaningful and protective of their aspirations and goals in life, and doing so will help them follow through on their intentions.
What Is the Research Base for Love Notes SRA?
Love Notes was included in the federal Office of Adolescent Health’s Evidence Based Program list based on the following positive outcomes:
- Teens were more likely to remain abstinent,
- Teens were more likely to stop having sex,
- Teens who chose to remain sexually active were more likely to decrease how often they had sex,
- Teens who chose to remain sexually active were more likely to use condoms and contraception, and
- Teens had a 46% reduction in the risk of experiencing a pregnancy.
Love Notes 4.0 SRA EBP is an adaptation ofLove Notes 3.0 Classic, In a five-year federally funded random control trial of Love Notes EBP, researchers at the University of Louisville, found that at-risk youth in the Love Notes group were 46% less likely to get pregnant compared to the control group. Read the Issue Brief and check out the Office of Adolescent Health’s report