An Analysis of HIV/AIDS Intervention with High-risk Youth
A study of the effectiveness of an AIDS-prevention intervention in high- risk adolescents, based on the cognitive-behavioral approach of Rotheram-Borus et al., modified to include peer-educators. High risk adolescents (235 males and 95 females) attending eight alternative high schools (four intervention and four control) were the participants. AIDS knowledge, high risk behavior, and intentions regarding future high risk behavior were measured at pre-test, post-test, and 5-month follow-up intervals. Pre-test data analyses provided descriptive characteristics of the sample, and gender differences were examined. Post-test analyses showed significant improvements in AIDS knowledge and in future intentions regarding high risk behaviors in the intervention participants only, but little change in current behavior. Five-month follow-up analyses showed few differences in behavior or intentions attributable to the intervention. Possible reasons for these findings include substantial exposure to AIDS education for some of the participants before the current study began and variation between sites in carrying out the intervention.
The work reported on herein was funded by a grant from the University of California at San Francisco, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies