Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale. CIC University of Illinois Chicago

/itx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A16934881&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=uic&version=1.0>. Abstract: This project assessed the impact of a school-based AIDS prevention program on student participation in sexual risk and protective behaviors such as use of condoms and use of condoms with foam and intention to participate in such behaviors. The paper focuses on students who became sexually active for the first time between the seventh and eighth grade ("changers," n = 312). The school-based intervention was developed using social cognitive theory and the social influences model of behavior change. Using an experimental, longitudinal design, 15 high-risk school districts were divided randomly into two treatment (10 districts) and one control (five districts) conditions. Students in both treatment conditions received a 10-lesson classroom program in the seventh grade with a five-lesson booster in the eighth grade, while control students received basic AIDS education (current practice in their districts) in compliance with state mandates. Results indicated classroom programs had an impact on certain protective behaviors and on frequency of sexual activity the past month. Post-intervention measures also indicated the program affected students' intentions to perform specific protective behaviors. (J Sch Health. 1995;65(4):145-151) Full Text:COPYRIGHT 1995 American School Health Association One major challenge in the battle to slow the spread of HIV, the pathogen that causes AIDS, involves reducing the risk behaviors in young adolescents. However, because the number of AIDS cases diagnosed among teens ages 13-19 remains relatively small (1,412 or 0.42% of the U.S. total),[1] adolescents may believe they face little or no risk of HIV infection. Since most adolescents who become infected with HIV during their teen-age years do not develop symptoms for an average of eight years or more,[2] young people have little direct experience with the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. This lack of direct, personal exposure to the negative consequences of risky sexual behavior likely reinforces feelings of invulnerability that already commonly influence adolescents' decisions, thereby reducing their motivation to change unsafe behavior. Further, adolescents tend to base their decisions on more immediate gratification than on distant and uncertain consequences of behavior. Consequently, young people may fail either to refrain from having sex or to use protective measures such as condoms and condoms with foam when they are sexually active. The term "foam" is used in this paper as a euphemism for all products containing nonoxynol-9. Given the long incubation period between initial infection and onset of disease, the relative number of adolescent AIDS cases remains quite small. Thus, the increasing rate of HIV disease and AIDS among young adults more accurately reflects the growing presence of HIV infection in the adolescent population. Data from the past decade indicate that rates of HIV infection among teens vary widely according to ethnicity and gender, and are increasing due to the growth in the number of adolescents engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse and initiating sexual activity at a younger age. [3] Results of a CDC survey show that for large numbers of students, initiation of risk behavior begins prior to their entry into ninth grade and high school. Data from the 1990 survey of a nationally representative sample of students in grades 9-12 indicate that 54.2% of students had experienced sexual intercourse[4] and about one-third (33.5%) of male and 20.0% of female students initiated sexual intercourse before age 15. [5] Data also indicate that African-American students were more likely to have experienced intercourse (72.3%) than White (51.6%) or Hispanic students (53.4%). [4] Among students who reported they had sexual intercourse during the three months prior to the survey, 44.9% reported they or their partners used a condom at last sexual intercourse. Male students (49.4%) were significantly more likely to report condom use at last sexual intercourse than female students (40.0%). African-Americans were most likely (47.1%) and Hispanics were least likely (38.4%) to report using condoms at last sexual intercourse; while condom use by White students fell between the two groups (45%). Characteristics that seem central to developing and maintaining a successful school-based prevention programs for adolescents include peer group activities, skills training, and service adjuncts that enlist family, community, and media support. [11] Information-based interventions can successfully increase student's knowledge, but evidence that knowledge relates to behavior change is weak. [12] In a review of approaches to school-based drug prevention efforts, Perry and Kelder[13] report findings of modest but consistent behavioral effects with programs that use a social influences model of prevention. The social influences model primarily uses peer group discussions and other opportunities for students t

Correlates of HIV risk among young adolescents in a large metropolitan midwestern epicenter

/itx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=EAIM&docId=A16661040&source=gale&srcprod=EAIM&userGroupName=uic&version=1.0>. Abstract: This paper examines levels of participation in and correlates of AIDS-related risk behavior for young adolescents in high-risk communities as determined by proxy indicators such as rates of reported STDs and adolescent pregnancies. Seventh and eighth grade students from two middle schools and ninth grade students from the receiving high school were surveyed. Descriptive and inferential techniques examined grade, racial, behavioral, and gender differences in participation in risk (substance use and sexual activity) and protective (use of condoms and use of condoms and foam) behaviors. Grade, race, and sexual activity were significant correlates of both licit and illicit drug use. Gender, grade, race, and licit and illicit drug use were significant correlates of sexual activity. Results demonstrate that not only are adults and older teens at risk in these communities, but younger adolescents also are at risk. Findings indicate a need for comprehensive HIV prevention programs at younger ages. (J Sch Health. 1995;65(1):28-32