G2G is a teenage pregnancy prevention program designed specifically for teen girls ages 14-18 years.
The program is delivered over text messaging, and teens across the country are being included in a research study to see if the program helps teens make healthier choices.
Maybe your daughter, niece, or even your child’s best friend has mentioned G2G to you. Whatever the case, welcome to our project website!
You might have some questions about what this is all about, so we’ll try our best to answer them.
Frequently Asked Questions
You might have some questions about what this is all about, so we’ll try our best to answer them. Click on the questions below to see it's answer.
- Who is conducting this research?
- How much will this cost?
- How can teens be in a program without my/her parent’s permission?
- Why are teens getting so many text messages?
- Why are the teens getting so many messages about sex?
- Will messages come while teens are at school?
- What if something comes up and teens need the messages to stop for a few days?
- What if a teen sends a message about a serious health issue (depression, anxiety, etc.)?
- Why is this only for teen women?
- I have a question that’s not on your website. Who do I contact with additional questions?
This program is being conducted by the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, a non-profit research organization dedicated to developing unique technology-based research and health education programs to improve the lives of young people.This program is sponsored by the Office of Adolescent Health, a department within the United States Health and Human Services.
As long as the teen receiving the text messages has an unlimited text messaging plan, her time in the program costs absolutely nothing!
We have worked closely with our ethical review board to make sure that we have designed a program that best protects the safety of the teens in our program. This includes allowing them to make their own decision about whether to take part in the research and not tell her parents if she does not want to.
There has been a lot of compelling research showing how effective text messages can be at improving healthy behaviors but one or two texts won't do the trick – more are needed to fully discuss important issues. That’s why we send about 6-10 messages a day for about 7 weeks. This may seem like a lot – but for the average teen girl who sends and receives about 40 messages per day – navigating day-to-day life while receiving many message per day is not uncommon. Ultimately, we want to make sure our program has a significant impact on young people's health.
This program aims to prevent teen pregnancy. It is critical that we talk about sex. We also talk about how to prevent pregnancy – primarily through abstinence, but also by using condoms. Healthy relationships and strong communication skills are things we talk about in the program as well.
This is one of the great things about this program – it's designed to respect school policies. Text messages will only be sent during times she specified as being non-school hours.
She can always text "snooze" to the program and the messages will stop for the time period she requests.
We take the needs of our participants very seriously. This program isn't intended to assist in an emergency, and in a crisis participants should always call 9-1-1 or a crisis hotline. At the same time, we fully understand that working with adolescents means that stress, trauma, mental illness, violence, and other issues can be present in the lives of our participants, and our team is prepared to provide appropriate resources and referrals to participants as needed.
We've tailored this program to only focus on health issues facing young women. As you’re probably aware, young men and young women have many different concerns and behaviors regarding their health, so it makes sense to tailor programs for them separately.
You can contact, Michele Ybarra, the program Manager at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research, with additional questions. Feel free to contact her by email at michele@InnovativePublicHealth.org or by phone at 877-302-6858, ext 806.