This study evaluated the effects of peer counseling in a culturally specific adolescent pregnancy prevention program for African American females. A random pretest and multiple posttest experimental and comparison group design was used to obtain data on a sample of 63 female African American adolescents, ages 12 to 16, who lived in four public housing developments. Descriptive data and tests of significance revealed that none of the participants who received peer counseling became pregnant within three months of the intervention. Findings revealed a statistically significant increase in reproductive and other self-related knowledge topics among the experimental group when comparing pretest and eight-week posttest scores. Most participants had not had sexual intercourse; the average age of sexual onset was 12 years in the experimental group and 11 years in the controls. Designing and implementing culturally specific adolescent pregnancy prevention programs for adolescents younger than age 11 and/or before sexually active seems appropriate.

Behaviors characterized as restricted and repetitive (RRBs) in autism manifest in diverse ways, from motor mannerisms to intense interests, and are diagnostically defined as interfering with functioning. A variety of early autism interventions target RRBs as preoccupying young autistic children to the detriment of exploration and learning opportunities. In an exploratory study, we developed a novel stimulating play situation including objects of potential interest to autistic children, then investigated repetitive behaviors and object explorations in 49 autistic and 43 age-matched typical young children (20–69 months). Autistic children displayed significantly increased overall frequency and duration of repetitive behaviors, as well as increased specific repetitive behaviors. However, groups did not significantly differ in frequency and duration of overall object explorations, in number of different objects explored, or in explorations of specific objects. Exploratory analyses found similar or greater exploration of literacy-related objects in autistic compared to typical children. Correlations between repetitive behaviors and object explorations (their frequency and duration) revealed positive, not negative, associations in both groups. Our findings, from a novel situation incorporating potential autistic interests, suggest that RRBs do not necessarily displace exploration and its possibilities for learning in autism.

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Aim This study explores how scholarship relating to meta‐analytical studies and systematic and integrative reviews can inform nursing’s contribution to universal health coverage. Introduction As nursing globally embraces the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the Nursing Now social movement has called for the profession to improve universal health coverage through increasing nursing’s policy voice. Methods In determining how the Nursing Now social movement could pursue the aim of this study, researchers undertook a comparative bibliometric analysis of scholarship relating to the systematic curation of evidence. This study uses a mixed‐method analysis of the bibliometric data available through extracting and synthesizing information from one of the commercially produced indexing and citation databases. Results Generally, medicine has contributed far more synthesized contributions than nursing, except in the case of integrative reviews. Co‐occurrence analysis of nursing literature through examination of key terms yielded a complex visualization of 11 specific clusters of scholarship (Care of the Older Person, Nurse Education, Emergency and Critical Care, Occupational Health and Safety, Rural Services, Anxiety and Depression, Measurement, Newborn and Post‐natal Health, Cardiovascular Disease, Preventative Health and Cancer Care). Discussion and conclusions Bibliometric analysis of curated evidence demonstrates that there is ample nursing‐relevant material to inform evidence‐based policy change directed towards the attainment of universal health coverage and several of the Sustainable Development Goals. Implications for policy Nursing literature is available to support policy change directed towards the pursuit of universal health coverage and sustainable development goals. Leveraging existing networks of research collaboration to increase research capacity through communities of scholarship or by twinning experienced and neophyte contributors is possible. Further work is needed to equip nurses with the competencies to navigate the policy environment and develop and deliver impactful policy messaging.

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