HIV/STD Risk Reduction Intervention for Adolescent Girls

Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

HIV/STD Risk Reduction Intervention for Adolescent Girls

OVERVIEW

This HIV/STD risk reduction intervention was designed to lower the rate of unprotected sexual intercourse among sexually-experienced low-income, minority adolescent girls. This skills-based intervention consisted of a single 250-minute session that specifically included activities regarding safe sex. The intervention succeeded in lowering rates of unprotected sexual intercourse at the 12-month follow-up. Participants also reported fewer sexual partners and were less likely to test positive for having a sexually-transmitted infection.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Low income minority adolescent girls

The HIV/STD risk reduction intervention was designed to lower the rate of unprotected sexual intercourse in low-income, minority adolescent girls. The intervention was designed to be culturally and developmentally sensitive for this particular population. The intervention consists of a single 250-minute session that includes group discussions, videotapes, games, and experiential exercises. The intervention is skills-based, thus includes activities such as illustrating and practicing condom use and depicting and role-playing effective condom use negotiation.

EVALUATION OF PROGRAM

Jemmott, J. B., Jemmott, L. S., Braverman, P. K., & Fong, G. T. (2005). HIV/STD risk reduction interventions for African American and Latino adolescent girls at an adolescent medicine clinic. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 159, 440-449.

Evaluated population: A total of 682 sexually experienced adolescent girls participated in the intervention. The sample consisted of 463 African American girls and 219 Latino girls whose average age was 15.5 years. Participants lived in a low-income, urban community.

Approach: Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an information-based HIV/STD intervention that provided information needed to reduce sexual risk, a skill-based HIV/STD intervention that provided information and taught skills necessary to practice and negotiate condom use, or a health-promotion control condition that focused on health issues unrelated to sexual behavior. Each intervention consisted of a single session of 250 minutes in which participants engaged in group discussions, videotapes, games, and experiential exercises.

Data were collected at five time points: before the intervention, right after the intervention, 3 months after the intervention, 6 months after the intervention, and 12 months after the intervention. The girls completed self-administered questionnaires regarding their sexual behavior and demographic variables. Biological specimens for STD testing were also collected before the intervention and at the 6 and 12-month follow-ups.

Results: The primary outcome examined in this intervention was number of days having sexual intercourse without a condom. The intervention only had an impact on this measure 12 months after the intervention, at which point participants who received the skill-based intervention reported significantly less frequent unprotected sexual intercourse than participants who received the information-based intervention or the health-promotion control intervention.

Participants in the skill-based intervention also reported fewer sexual partners than those who received the control intervention and in addition were less likely to report multiple partners than those who received the control intervention at the 12-month follow-up. They also reported a lower frequency of sexual intercourse while intoxicated compared with the control and the information-based intervention after 3 months, and a lower frequency of sexual intercourse while intoxicated compared with the control intervention after 6 months. In addition, the skill-based group reported less frequent unprotected sexual intercourse while intoxicated than the control group at the 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, skill-based participants were less likely to test positive for an STD than participants in the control intervention at the 12-month follow up.

Significant impacts were also reported for theory-driven mediators at post-test, including HIV/STD knowledge, condom use knowledge, intentions, hedonistic beliefs, impulse control beliefs, and technical skills beliefs relative to control, as well as impacts on condom use knowledge relative to girls in the information-based treatment groups.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

KEYWORDS: Adolescents (12-17), Youth (16+), Young Adults (1-24), Female Only, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Urban, Clinic/Provider-Based, STD/HIV/AIDS, Sexual Activity, Condom Use and Contraception

Program information last updated on 10/19/11.