The proposed study will use the Self-Regulation model to develop and evaluate an STD/AIDS risk reduction program for black males (ages 15-19) receiving care at an urban STD clinic. The program's ultimate objective is a reduction in the occurrence of high risk sexual behaviors by participants through (a) increased condom use, (b) reduction in the number of sexual contacts and avoidance of anonymous sexual contacts, and (c) reduction in the frequency of high risk sexual behaviors (e.g., unprotected receptive anal sex). The program will use participants' common sense representations of STD/AIDS to create an accurate perception of personal risk. It will teach them how to use condoms effectively. It will provide training in planning and performing other risk-reducing behaviors, and it will seek to convince participants that engaging in these behaviors will reduce their personal risk. The study will use a three-group, randomized, prospective design. Two of the groups are treatment groups; the third group is a control group that receives the clinic's standard care and education program. A professionally made videotape will be used to present the intervention to individuals assigned to Group 1. A health educator will present the intervention to individuals assigned to Group 2. The objectives and informational content of the two interventions are identical. The first objective is linking the individual's perception of susceptibility to his high risk behaviors. The second objective is to show the benefits of engaging in risk-reducing behaviors and the specific skills required to master the behavior. The key feature of the Group 2 intervention is that participants will be asked to actively rehearse selected risk-reducing behaviors as the health educator guides participants through the step-by-step plan for using condoms and other risk-reducing behaviors. The health educator may be more effective than the videotape in personalizing the risk for the participant. Data will be collected from all participants at baseline and immediately after the intervention to assess the intervention's impact with respect to the constructs of the Self-Regulation model. Data will be collected from all participants 30 days later, and data will be collected from randomly selected subsamples 6 months later. The follow-up data will be used to assess the intervention's impact on sexual behavior, condom use, and other preventive behaviors. The sample size at baseline is 900 adolescent males.
| DeLamater, J; Wagstaff, D A; Havens, K K (2000) The impact of a culturally appropriate STD/AIDS education intervention on black male adolescents' sexual and condom use behavior. Health Educ Behav 27:454-70 |
| Wagstaff, D A; Delamater, J D; Havens, K K (1999) Subsequent infection among adolescent African-American males attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic. J Adolesc Health 25:217-26 |
