Brief report on a systematic review and meta-analysis of early childhood educational programming and teenage pregnancy prevention

• Published in: Journal of adolescence (London, England.) England.), 2020-10, Vol.84 (1), p.149-155
• Main Authors: Arnold, Olivia M., Coyne, Imelda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Child; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Early childhood education; Education; Educational programs; Effectiveness; Female; Humans; Meta Analysis; Methodological problems; Pregnancy; Pregnancy in Adolescence - prevention & control; Prevention; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Systematic review; Teenage pregnancy; Teenage pregnancy prevention; Young Children
• ISSN: 0140-1971; 1095-9254
• DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.08.008

This is a brief report of a systematic review and meta-analysis which examined the effectiveness of early childhood educational programs for preventing teenage pregnancy by synthesizing randomized control trials. The search terms included ‘children’, ‘early childhood intervention’, and ‘teen pregnancy’. Databases, bibliographies, grey literature, and policy reports were searched in February and March 2018 and included studies with interventions implemented with participants from birth to 5 years old. Only four randomized control trials were eligible for inclusion. Individually, only two of the studies reported a significant effect of early childhood education. There was a significant effect for the primary outcome of teenage pregnancy prevention in the meta-analysis (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.54–0.89). However, the evidence was very weak. The meta-analysis results were weighted heavily by one study. Additionally, the included studies were conducted decades ago, lacked rigor, and varied considerably by curriculum, enrollment age, length, and intensity. Given the few number of studies, and issues with rigor and heterogeneity, it is unclear whether the results of this review represent a true effect of the intervention. Importantly, this review highlights the paucity of randomized control trials examining the effectiveness of early childhood education for preventing teenage pregnancy. Future studies need to be designed to address the methodological challenges noted here to determine what facets of early childhood education most effectively prevent teenage pregnancy. Randomized control trials, while challenging to implement, are best suited to determine the true causal effect of early childhood education for preventing teenage pregnancy.