BE PROUD! BE RESPONSIBLE!
Strategies to Empower Youth to Reduce Their Risk for AIDS

Target Audience: African-American, Hispanic, and white youth, ages 13-18, attending inner-city schools and community based programs. Length: 5 hours, can be implemented in 1-6 sessions. Activities: A series of fun and interactive learning experiences designed to increase participation and enhance learning. Activities include educational videos, trigger films, role plays, condom demonstrations, and other exercises. Most are brief, lasting no more than 20 minutes. Components: A teacher/facilitators' manual and a kit that contains posters and videos. Theories: Social Cognitive Theory, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Theory of Reasoned Action. Special Consideration: Requires the use of TV monitor, VCR, and latex condoms lubricated with spermicide.

Objectives: After completing this program, students will: Increase their knowledge about HIV, AIDS, and other STDs Believe in the value of safer sex, including abstinence Have confidence in their ability to negotiate sager sex and to use condoms correctly Be able to use condoms and negotiate sexual situations Intend to practice safer sex Reduce sexual risk behavior Take pride in and responsibility for choosing responsible sexual behaviors. Topics: Knowledge about the etiology, transmission, and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STDs Beliefs about personal risk of HIV infection, abstinence, and use of condoms and spermicide as means to reduce the risk of HIV infection, condoms as a means for enhancing sexual enjoyment, and a partner's willingness to accept safer sex practices Skills to reduce risky behaviors--negotiation, refusal, and condom use Refusal skills and delay tactics, and how they can be effectively used to avoid unprotected sex Self-efficacy and confidence in using the skills taught

hree months following the intervention, the students who participated in the intervention reported less risky sexual behavior than did students in the control condition. Students in the intervention condition reported having sexual intercourse on fewer occasions and with fewer partners. Those who had sexual intercourse used condoms more consistently and a smaller percentage of them reported engaging in anal intercourse.

Students participating in curriculum scored higher on a test of AIDS and STD knowledge, expressed less favorable attitudes toward risky sexual behavior, and reported weaker intentions to engage in risky sexual behavior than did the students who had participated in the control condition.

Research Design: In the research study, the 5-hr. curriculum was implemented in the single-day format on a Saturday in school classrooms at a local school. Participants were 157 inner city African-American male adolescents (Note: intervention has since been successfully implemented in populations listed in Target Audience). Their ages ranged from 12 to 19, with a mean of 14.6 years. The students were stratified by age and assigned randomly within age to the intervention or a control condition which received instruction on career opportunities. Students received the curriculum in small groups of six to eight. Each group had a mix of ages; the average age in each group was about the same. One-half of the groups were led by a male facilitator, the other half by a female facilitator. Participants completed questionnaires before, immediately after, and 3 months after the intervention. Of the original 157 students, 150 or 96% returned to complete the 3-month follow-up questionnaire. The measures included HIV risk-associated sexual behavior, intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors, attitudes toward risky sexual behaviors, and AIDS and STD knowledge.

Ordering information: Select Media 800/707-6334
Training Information: Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education's
Staff Development Office 303/239-6494

Research Reference: Jemmott, J.B., Jemmott, L.S., and Fong, T. (1992). Reductions in HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors among black male adolescents: Effects of an AIDS prevention intervention. American Journal of Public Health, 82 (3), 372-377.