The impact of AIDS education on seventh and eigth grade adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about AIDS

Twomey, Creina (1996) The impact of AIDS education on seventh and eigth grade adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about AIDS. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Adolescents are the fastest growing at-risk group for contracting AIDS because of their developmental characteristics, lifestyle practices, and their youthful sense of invulnerability. In the absence of a cure, prevention has been recognized as the only defense against the disease and education is seen as the key to prevention. Using a questionnaire based on the PRECEDE model and developed by Alteneder et al. (1992) a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was employed to assess the impact of an AIDS educational program on junior high school students in central St. John's, Newfoundland. One hundred and ninety-four students completed the pretest. The students were then randomized into either the intervention group (N=82) or the control group (N=98). The experimental and control group were not significantly different on any of the characteristics related to demographics or previous knowledge related to AIDS. The results were analyzed using means, standard deviations and a repeated measures analysis of variance. Findings indicate that there was a significant change in AIDS knowledge in the intervention group (p<.001). However, there was no significant change in attitudes toward people with AIDS, beliefs about AIDS, values, perceptions, enabling and reinforcing factors after the intervention. A one hour intervention is effective in changing adolescents' knowledge of AIDS but does not affect the other concepts associated with the PRECEDE framework. Further assessment of types of interventions, refinement of the PRECEDE questionnaire and research into and prevention of adolescents' risk taking behaviour is recommended.

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