Hobfoll, S.E., Jackson, A.P., Lavin, J., Britton, P.J., & Shepherd, J.B. (1994). Health Psychology, 13 (5), 397 - 403
Description of Intervention: Reducing AIDS Risk Activities
The intervention was based on theories of social learning, conservation of resources (including coping strategies and support skills), and communal support.
Clinics were in a mid-sized Midwestern city. The intervention consisted of 4 sessions, 1½- to 2-hours each, for groups of 2 to 8 women. Trained group leaders were female psychologists and health educators whose ethnic backgrounds were similar to those of the participants.
Sessions featured videos using actors from the target population illustrating assertiveness, negotiation skills, planning skills, and specialized skills (e.g., cleaning drug works). Women discussed the videos and role-played risk scenarios. Participants created health plans.
Women learned negotiation skills and assertiveness skills. They developed a sense of mastery and positive expectations of success. The sessions also included an activity in which women imagined an unhealthy behavior and then imagined a healthy behavior. The final session addressed relapse prevention.
Incentives included cash, partial reimbursement for transportation and child care costs, and participation in a lottery for a color television. |
Intervention Goal(s): To determine the effects of a small group intervention to enhance AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and skills and, as a result, to influence behavior change.
Intervention Setting: Inner-city clinics for low-income women.
Population: Of the 206 single pregnant women who participated in the study, 57% were African American, 40% were white, and 3% were of other racial/ethnic groups. The average age of the participants was 21 years, ranging from 16 to 29 years. About one-third of the participants had not completed high school; 75% had income of less than $10,000 per year.
Comparison Conditions: One was general health promotion, which included information, behavioral competency training, and social support that was not AIDS-specific, and the other was no intervention.
Behavioral Findings: Women who participated in the intervention increased their use of condoms with their partners more than women in the health promotion condition and significantly more than women who received no intervention.
Contact:
Stevan E. Hobfoll, PhD
Applied Psychology Center
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, OH 44242 0001
Phone: 330 672 2137
Fax: 330 672 3786
E-mail: shobfoll@kent.edu
Go to Project RESPECT
This study meets CDC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis project criteria for relevance and methodological rigor and also has the positive and significant behavioral/health findings required for the Compendium. Date added 1/99
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