Children's Knowledge and Attitudes about AIDS

doi:10.1097/00004583-198807000-00022

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Volume 27, Issue 4, July 1988, Pages 504-508

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-198807000-00022 Get rights and content

Abstract

Knowledge, attitudes, and coping skills were surveyed in 908 seventh and tenth grade students. The majority of students knew that AIDS was transmitted by sexual rather than casual contact. Correlations between knowledge and behavioral attitudes were minimal, so the impact of increasing knowledge about AIDS would seem unpredictable. A subgroup of least tolerant students (N = 57) could be distinguished from the other students only by differences in coping strategies. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 1988, 27, 4:504–508.

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Adolescents also reported alcohol use and other drug use in the past 6 months (yes/no) and use of substances at time of sex (yes/no). HIV knowledge was assessed using 20 true/false/don’t know items about HIV and prevention.16 The scores are the number of items correct.
Adolescents in alternative schools for behavioral and emotional problems have an earlier sexual onset and higher rates of sexual risk than their peers. They also often have difficulty managing strong emotions, which can impair sexual decision making. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention programs for these adolescents may be most effective if skills for coping with strong emotions during sexual situations are included.
This article reports the 6-month outcomes of a three-arm randomized controlled trial comparing an HIV prevention intervention with affect management (AM) to a standard, skills-based HIV prevention intervention (SB), and a general health promotion intervention (HP). HP was similar to a general health class, and SB was based on previous effective HIV prevention programs used with community adolescents, whereas AM included affect management skills in addition to effective HIV prevention skills. Youth (N = 377) in two US cities were 13 to 19 years of age and attending alternative schools for behavioral and emotional problems.
Multiple logistic regression analyses, adjusted for the baseline scores, age, and gender, found that adolescents in AM were significantly less likely to report being sexually active at follow-up (80% versus 91%, adjusted odds ratio = 0.28, 95% CI = 0.08−0.96) and more consistently using condoms than those in HP at follow-up (62%, versus 39%, adjusted odds ratio = 3.42, CI = 1.10−10.63).
Affect management techniques tested in this project, focused on sexual situations, are similar to those that are used in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and in clinical practice. These data suggest that these techniques might decrease risk behaviors and improve the health of adolescents with emotional/behavioral problems.
Clinical trial registration information—Therapeutic Schools: Affect Management and HIV Prevention; http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT00500487.
Safe thinking and affect regulation (STAR): Human immunodeficiency virus prevention in alternative/therapeutic schools
2011, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Citation Excerpt :
Cronbach's α for the current sample was 0.69. Higher scores indicate greater knowledge.36 Adolescents completed 13 items measuring perceived abilities to use condoms in specific contexts (e.g., “How sure are you that you could use a condom when … .
To evaluate the effectiveness of Safe Thinking and Affect Regulation (STAR), a 14-session HIV-prevention program for adolescents at alternative/therapeutic schools. Because these youth frequently have difficulties with emotions and cognitions, it was designed to improve sexuality-specific affect management and cognitive monitoring, as well as HIV-related knowledge and attitudes. It was hypothesized that STAR would lead to a decrease in sexual risk and improved HIV knowledge and attitudes.
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Hierarchical linear model (HLM) analyses found that adolescents in the STAR intervention reported a significantly greater decrease (p < .05) in the Sexual Risk Index than youth in the control group over the 6 months post intervention and similar improvements in the HIV Knowledge Scale and the Condom Use Self Efficacy Scale. There were no group differences between 6 and 9 months post intervention.
This STAR intervention for youth in alternative schools was associated with decreased sexual risk for 6 months after the intervention. These data suggest that intervention strategies that target cognitions and affect within a sexual context might be usefully applied to improving sexual behavior but may need to be reinforced over time. Clinical trial registration information—HIV, Abuse, and Psychiatric Disorders Among Youth; http://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT00603369.
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Urban middle school.
Two male and two female groups consisting of 4–7 students each, ages 11–15 years.
The predominant responses in all four groups relating to factual knowledge of HIV transmission and mechanisms of prevention were correct. However, responses indicated that factual information had not been integrated into students' plans for situations involving relationships and sexual activity. All four groups shared the image of AIDS as a disease of adults. The girls frequently gave responses which included discussion and use of condoms, whereas only a few boys could realistically visualize using condoms. Many students, predominately boys, identified with media figures such as Magic Johnson and saw themselves to be at risk for HIV, but the girls almost exclusively saw Magic Johnson as a rich, famous person and did not identify with him. Students gave suggestions about ways to improve AIDS education and recommended that AIDS education begin in the early grades.
Standard AIDS education may be effective in teaching factual information about AIDS, but it may have little effect on students' future behavior. The format of AIDS education may need to be modified to better address adolescents' beliefs and behaviors regarding HIV and AIDS.
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Moving beyond Role-Play: Evaluating the Use of Virtual Reality to Teach Emotion Regulation for the Prevention of Adolescent Risk Behavior Within a Randomized Pilot Trial
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: This work was funded in part by a grant from the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

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Editor's NoteChildren's Knowledge and Attitudes about AIDS

Abstract

Adolescent sexuality in a changing American society: social and psychological perspectives

How and why we knowingly enrolled a student with AIDS

The Executive Educator

Adolescents and AIDS: a survey of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about AIDS in San Francisco

Am. J. Public Health

The perceived competence scale for children. Child Dev.

Confronting AIDS: Directions for Public Health, Health Care, and Research

The effect of increased knowledge of body systems and functions on attitudes toward the disabled

Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin

The effects of school sex education programs: a review of the literature

J Sch. Health

Editor's Note
Children's Knowledge and Attitudes about AIDS