Parent to Parent: Preventing Adolescent Exposure to HIV

Abstract

A 2-year pilot program implemented by public health nurses (PHNs) in partnership with the leaders of parent associations of 10 urban high schools encouraged communication about health-promoting sexual behavior between adults and adolescents. The purpose was to assess the feasibility of involving parents in health promotion efforts in schools. During the first year, PHNs prepared a cohort of 17 parent trainers to make presentations to parent groups about the reality of teens' risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) exposure, facts to counter myths about outcomes of sex education, and the skills teens need to implement healthy choices, including abstinence, correct condom use, and talking about sex with a potential sexual partner. Each parent trainer was then scheduled to make two presentations at parent association meetings. Criteria for assessing the impact of extending the program, including broader diffusion in the community, are proposed. This approach may be effective for community-based education about other health issues.

Interventions to Improve Parental Communication About Sex: A Systematic Review

“…Several studies met more than 1 exclusion criteria. Four studies were excluded because they lacked a control group 23-26 ; 9 did not report parent-adolescent communication outcome data [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] ; 1 did not report outcome data for parent participants, only for adolescent participants 36 ; 3 included parents of younger children but did not stratify outcome data on the basis of the age of participating parents' children 25,26,37 ; 1 only included parents of preschool-aged children 38 ; parents participated in multiple interventions simultaneously in 1 study, which made it impossible to determine the individual effects of the parent-adolescent communication program 39 ; and 4 included non-US samples. [40][41][42][43] …”

Perceptions of Peer to Peer HIV/AIDS Education

“…As the rates of HIV/AIDS increase among adolescents, schools will be called on to even further enhance their role (Bennett, Contessa, & Turner, 1999). Recent studies confirm however, that sexuality education is teeming with challenges (Darroch, Landry, & Singh, 2000;Kempner, 2003;Lindberg, Ku, & Sonenstein, 2000).…”

“…Commentators propose that sex education curricula focus on two general areas, (1) social competencies, such as: critical thinking and problem solving skills, socio-behavioral risk variables, norms of social conduct, and social skills; and (2) affective competencies, such as: enhancing self-esteem and self-efficacy, promoting perceptions of competence and locus of control, increasing comfort about sexual identity, and enhancing abilities to resist negative peer pressure (Bennett, Contessa, & Turner, 1999;Morris, Ulmer, & Chimnani, 2003;Risisky, Caldwell, & Fors, 1997;Schinke, Schilling, Krauskopf, Botvin, & Orlandi, 1988;Taylor-Seehafer & Rew, 2000). The knowledge and understanding of how these factors interact, all within the purview of the school social worker, is intrinsic to improving sex education and prevention.…”

Parent peer education: Lessons learned from a community-based initiative for teen pregnancy prevention

“…Worthwhile methods of community-level health education involve community members who receive training and then share health information with other community members [17,18]. Parents, in particular, may be effective peer educators [19]. Bennett et al found that parents can successfully deliver information about teen health, sexual behavior, and HIV prevention to other parents [19].…”

“…Parents, in particular, may be effective peer educators [19]. Bennett et al found that parents can successfully deliver information about teen health, sexual behavior, and HIV prevention to other parents [19].…”