Replication of a community-based multicomponent teen pregnancy prevention model: Realities and challenges

Health education curricula and the delivery of specific health services have been evaluated as to their replicability in other settings. Formal studies to evaluate replication of multicomponent community-based program models are scarce. Moreover, the literature does not address the challenges in implementing complex program models and documenting replication. This article describes an initiative to transport and replicate the School/Community Sexual Risk Reduction Model, created in South Carolina, in three Kansas communities over a 4-year period. Objective and subjective assessments of achieving fidelity to the model core components were determined as was a description of factors that enhance or inhibit replication efforts. Assessing replication will be improved when detailed monitoring and process evaluation is in place in the development of the original program and in the replication effort.