Bridging the Digital Divide by Increasing Computer and Cancer Literacy: Community Technology Centers for Head-Start Parents and Families

Abstract

This article describes the establishment of two community technology centers affiliated with Head Start early childhood education programs focused especially on Latino and African American parents of children enrolled in Head Start. A 6-hour course concerned with computer and cancer literacy was presented to 120 parents and other community residents who earned a free, refurbished, Internet-ready computer after completing the program. Focus groups provided the basis for designing the structure and content of the course and modifying it during the project period. An outcomes-based assessment comparing program participants with 70 nonparticipants at baseline, immediately after the course ended, and 3 months later suggested that the program increased knowledge about computers and their use, knowledge about cancer and its prevention, and computer use including health information-seeking via the Internet. The creation of community computer technology centers requires the availability of secure space, capacity of a community partner to oversee project implementation, and resources of this partner to ensure sustainability beyond core funding.

Research reported in this article was funded by the National Cancer Institute in the form of a subcontract to the New England Cancer Information Service (N02-CO-01040-75). The Health, Emotion, and Behavior (HEB) Laboratory is supported by grants from the Ethel Donaghue Foundation Women's Health Investigator Program at Yale University, the National Cancer Institute (R01-CA68427), the National Institute of Mental Health (P01-MH/DA56826), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50-DA13334). We thank our partners for their contributions to this project: the LULAC Head Start programs in the New Haven community who hosted the program and Computers 4 Kids for designing and teaching the bilingual (Spanish and English), family-focused computer course.

Notes

Note. Different superscripts denote significant differences between the cells, using Bonferroni-corrected, pairwise comparisons. Comparisons can be made only within the same row or the same column. Degrees of freedom may vary due to some missing data, but are generally (2, 224) for Time, (1, 112) for Group, and (2, 224) for Time × Group.

†p <.10, ∗p <.05, ∗∗p <.01, ∗∗∗p <.001. Int = Intervention group. Cntrl = Control group.

Pamela Williams-Piehota is currently employed by RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC. Judith Andersen is now at the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare, VA Medical Center, Syracuse, NY.