U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Preventing HIV/AIDS: A Brief Intervention for Adolescent Substance Abusers

NCJ Number
188776
Journal
Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: 2000 Pages: 23-32
Author(s)
Deborah Deas; Carrie L. Randall; James S. Roberts
Editor(s)
Vincent B. Van Hasselt Ph.D., Brad Donohue Ph.D.
Date Published
2000
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a brief educational motivation intervention for HIV/AIDS risky behaviors in treatment seeking substance-abusing adolescents.
Abstract
Adolescents engaging in risky sexual behaviors and substance use are at a high risk of contracting HIV infection. Substance abusing adolescents, in particular, tend to engage in high risk HIV behaviors despite their knowledge of HIV/AIDS. To determine the effectiveness of a brief educational motivation intervention in the prevention of HIV/AIDS, 60 treatment seeking male and female substance abusing adolescents were randomly assigned to an experimental intervention or to a control group. The average length of stay for these adolescents was 5 days. The study revealed the involvement in alcohol and drugs may in part, play a role in the participation of HIV risky behaviors despite having adequate knowledge of HIV/AIDS. There was no significant effect of the brief educational motivation intervention on self-reported HIV/AIDS risky behaviors over a 6-month follow-up period. The intervention took approximately 15 minutes. The length of the intervention may not have been sufficient enough to produce differences. A longer intervention or longer follow-up period was suggested to produce different results. In addition, education alone may not produce a sustained behavioral change. Study limitations were identified as; lack of accurate alcohol and drug use data over time, lack of a non-substance abuse control group, and the lack of a non-treatment seeking population of substance abusing adolescents. The results of this study may help future intervention efforts. References

Publication Format
Article
Publication Type
Report (Study/Research)
Language
English
Country
United States of America