“Secrets”: Using educational theatre to inform adolescents about HIV risk prevention

Background/Significance

Adolescents are especially at risk for contracting HIV. Estimates of HIV incidence suggest that at least 50% of the 56,000 new infections each year are among individuals under age 25. Studies have demonstrated that integrating information about HIV prevention into school-based health education programming leads to increased knowledge and decreased high-risk behaviors among adolescents.

Objective/Purpose

Assess the impact of the HIV prevention educational theatre on adolescent's knowledge of HIV and transmission, perception of social norms for prevention behaviors, intentions regarding risky behaviors and performance of HIV prevention behaviors.

Methods

This study was conducted in three high schools located in a large Midwestern city. Pre-test/post-test design was used to evaluate the impact of “Secrets”. Adolescents completed pre-tests, then attended a production of “Secrets”. Post-tests were completed immediately after the performance, at 4 months, and at 12 months.

Results

Significant differences emerged between types of high schools for; increase in correct knowledge (p=0.001), behavioral intentions (p=0.00), and ranking of peers' risk (p=0.000). Traditional high schools had less improvement post performance on all variables when compared to specialty schools (high risk or high achievement schools).

Conclusion/Discussion

Notably knowledge, social norms, and behavioral intentions differed among participants at baseline and were associated with the differences in the educational climate of individual schools. Friends/ peer pressure had less effect on behavior in nontraditional schools where success driven curricula were employed. Policy changes are needed to allow customization of HIV/AIDS prevention educational interventions to make them more relevant to individual school populations.