Real Men

Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

REAL MEN

OVERVIEW

REAL Men is a seven-week program intended to prevent HIV acquisition among adolescent boys. The program focuses on providing fathers or father figures with the skills necessary to communicate about HIV prevention with their sons. In a random assignment study, father-son pairs assigned to participate in the REAL Men program were compared with father-son pairs assigned to participate in a control program. Following the program, father-son pairs in the REAL Men group were more likely than father-son pairs in the control group to report having discussed sex-related topics. Sons in the REAL Men group also reported greater rates of abstinence at the six-month follow-up.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: 11-14 year-old boys and their fathers or father figures

The REAL (Responsible, Empowered, Aware, Living) Men program consists of seven weekly sessions. Fathers attend the first six sessions alone, and bring their sons to the final session. Sessions provide information on communicating with adolescents, parental monitoring, and peer relationships. Sessions also familiarize fathers with sexual topics important in adolescence and discuss the transmission and prevention of HIV and AIDS. Session activities include lectures, discussions, role-plays, games, and videos. Fathers are encouraged to set goals to work on between sessions and are provided with take-home assignments after every session.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Dilorio, C., McCarty, F., Resnicow, K., Lehr, S., & Denzmore, P. (2007). REAL Men: A Group-Randomized Trial of an HIV Prevention Intervention for Adolescent Boys. American Journal of Public Health, 97(6), 1084-1089.

Evaluated population: 273 father-son pairs served as the study sample for this investigation. Sons were recruited from seven Boys & Girls Clubs in metropolitan Atlanta. All sons were between the ages of 11 and 14. 96% were African American.

Any son who did not have regular contact with his biological father was invited to have another father figure take part in the program with him. 40% of sons took part in the program with a biological father; 15% took part with a step-father; 23% took part with another male relative (older brother, uncle, or grandfather); and 22% took part with another male role model (mother’s boyfriend or older male friend). 70% of sons lived with their father or chosen father figure.

Approach: All sons were enrolled as members at Boys & Girls Clubs. Club sites were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group. Father-son pairs at treatment sites were invited to participate in the REAL Men program. Father-son pairs at control sites were invited to participate in a seven-week nutrition and exercise program.

The intervention is based on social cognitive theory. All father-son pairs were surveyed at baseline and again 3, 6, and 12 months later.

Results: At the 3-month follow-up, fathers and father figures assigned to participate in the REAL Men program were significantly more likely to report having talked to their sons about sex-related topics. Though not significant at the 6-month follow up, this impact was once again significant at the 12-month follow-up. At each follow-up, sons assigned to the REAL Men program were more likely to report having talked about sex-related topics with their fathers, but the difference was never more than marginally significant.

Treatment boys were not significantly more likely than control boys to report being sexually abstinent at the 3-month or 12-month follow-up; however, they were more likely to report being abstinent at the 6-month follow-up. Non-experimental subgroup analyses were also reported. Among those who reported being abstinent, treatment boys voiced a greater intent to remain abstinent than did control boys at the 12-month follow-up. Among those who reported not being abstinent, treatment boys reported more frequent condom use than did control boys at the 12-month follow-up.

(Analyses took into account the fact that randomization occurred at the group level.)

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 11-14

Program age ranges in the guide: Middle Childhood, Adolescence

Program components: Parent or Family Component

Measured outcomes: Reproductive Health

Program information last updated on 12/20/07.