Affect Management for HIV Prevention with Adolescents in Therapeutic Schools: The immediate impact of Project Balance

摘要

Adolescents in therapeutic schools are at greater risk for HIV and other STIs than their peers due to earlier higher rates of sexual risk and difficulty managing strong emotions. HIV prevention programs that incorporate techniques for affect management during sexual situations may be beneficial. This paper determined the immediate impact of such an intervention, Affect Management (AM), compared to a standard, skills-based HIV prevention intervention (SB) and a general health promotion intervention (HP) for 377 youth, ages 13 to 19, in therapeutic schools in two cities. One month after the intervention, analyses that adjusted for the baseline scores found adolescents in AM were more likely to report condom use at last sex than those in HP (.89 vs. .67, p=.02) and that their HIV knowledge was significantly greater. These data suggest that affect management techniques might improve the impact of standard skills-based prevention programs for adolescents in therapeutic schools.