Pre-adolescents of color on New York City's Lower East Side are at risk for HIV through 1) transition to an adolescent life-style with a high prevalence of risky sexual and drug use behaviors and 2) poor access to current information about HIV. In a randomized clinical trial in this community, we will implement and evaluate an expanded version of a culturally sensitive curriculum, incorporating active modeling, rehearsal and reinforcement techniques, focused on promoting and supporting effective parent-child communication about sex, drugs and HIV. The curriculum, authored by Cornell University faculty, has trained 1,200 volunteer facilitators and, through them, 32,500 residents of New York State in workplaces, and other community locales. In skill-based exercises, the program trains parents in four-sessions on HIV knowledge, awareness of child development, parent-child communication, transfer of negotiation, assertion and refusal skills to the child, and appropriate interaction with persons with HIV. This Parent/Pre-Adolescent Training Program will be evaluated in terms of outcomes for parents and children: number, specificity and quality of HIV-related parent/child discussions; knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention; confidence, intention to perform and performance of HIV prevention behaviors; and attitudes toward and interactions with persons with HIV. The research will also identify determinants of increased HIV prevention communications, prevention behavior intentions and prevention behaviors for parents and children. Using a modified random invitation design to create three groups (controls, invited/treatment-acceptors, invited treatment-decliners), 80 mothers/daughters, 80 mothers/sons, 80 fathers/daughters, and 80 fathers/sons will be evaluated at baseline, and 6-months and 1-year post- intervention using ANCOVA, multivariate and content analytic techniques. This study will inform future programs on better targetting or restructuring interventions to reach such parents and families. In a longitudinal framework, it will study parent/child communications about sex, drugs and HIV and their relationship to HIV prevention behaviors and intentions across a developmentally important transition period.
| Krauss, Beatrice J; Godfrey, Christopher C; O'Day, Joanne et al. (2006) Hugging my uncle: the impact of a parent training on children's comfort interacting with persons living with HIV. J Pediatr Psychol 31:891-904 |
| Krauss, Beatrice J; O'Day, Joanne; Godfrey, Christopher et al. (2006) Who wins in the status games? Violence, sexual violence, and an emerging single standard among adolescent women. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1087:56-73 |
