Baby doll simulation scheme does not reduce teen pregnancies, study finds

Girls taking part in a scheme that aims to reduce teenage pregnancies by getting teenagers to look after an electronic doll that cries when it needs feeding or changing were more likely to become pregnant than those not involved in the scheme, a randomised study has found.1

Schemes to tackle teenage pregnancy must look beyond this purported “magic doll,” one commentator has said, and must target girls and boys in infancy rather than adolescents.

Programmes using infant simulators are increasingly used in high income countries to try to reduce teenage …