Rotheram-Borus, M., Van Rossem, R., Gwadz, M., Koopman, C., & Lee, M. (1997)
University of California, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Social and Community Psychiatry, Los Angeles, CA
Description of Intervention: StreetSmart
This intervention was based on Social Learning Theory, using small groups (a) as practice and role-play opportunities, (b) to mobilize and reinforce positive behaviors, and (c) to maintain support networks. The intervention consisted of 10 group sessions on a rotating basis, 3 times per week, repeated every 4 to 6 weeks, and one individual counseling session. Sessions were led by trained counselors in shelters for runaway youth in the New York City area. The intervention had four primary components:
- HIV-related knowledge. Activities included video and art workshops where youth developed soap opera dramatizations, public service announcements, commercials, and raps about HIV prevention, and they reviewed and discussed commercial HIV/AIDS prevention videos.
- Social skills. Training on assertiveness and coping skills, including use of a "feeling thermometer," were employed to develop skills for use in HIV-risk situations.
- Access to resources. Participants visited a community based comprehensive health and mental health center.
- Personalized beliefs, attitudes and norms. Participants had a private counseling session during which they could assess individual barriers to practicing safer sex and discuss their own attitudes and behavior patterns. Dysfunctional attitudes and behavior patterns were targeted.
Incentives included food and $1 for carrying condoms and arriving to the program on time.
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Intervention Goal(s): To determine the effects of a small group intervention to reduce HIV-related sexual and drug-related risk behaviors.
Intervention Setting: Shelters for runaway adolescents.
Population: Of the 312 runaway and homeless youths who enrolled in the study, 51% were male and 49% were female; 57% were African American, 22% were Hispanic, 16% were white or of other racial/ethnic groups, and race/ethnicity was unknown for 5%. The average age of the youths was 16 years.
Comparison Condition: Usual services available in the runaway shelters.
Behavioral Findings: Adolescents who participated in the intervention reduced both the number of unprotected sexual acts and their substance use significantly more than adolescents in the comparison shelters.
Contact:
Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, PhD
Department of Psychiatry
University of California Los Angeles
10920 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 350
Los Angeles, CA 90024Phone: 310 794 8278
Fax: 310 794 8297
E-mail: rotheram@ucla.edu
Go to Focus on Kids
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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