An evaluation of a school-based AIDS/HIV education program for young adolescents

This study evaluated the efficacy of a school-based AIDS human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education program on 6th and 7th grade students. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design, a control group and an education group (intervention I) received both pretest and posttest questionnaires and a second education group (intervention II) was posttested only. Students were evaluated using a modified version of the Centers for Disease Control's Health Risk Survey. Students who received AIDS education were less likely (p ≤ 0.0001) than the control group to report that they had changed their behavior to avoid getting AIDS, but thought they had a greater (p ≤ 0.0002) chance of acquiring AIDS as an adult. In the intervention I group, males who had never received prior AIDS instruction were more worried about acquiring AIDS as an adult (p ≤ 0.013). In the intervention II group, the education had a significant impact on the level of knowledge about AIDS/HIV infection (p ≤ 0.0003) and the degree of tolerance toward students with AIDS (p ≤ 0.0008), but the effect was not greater than the learning that occurred in the other 2 groups from testing alone. Students who were pretested were also less worried that they had been exposed to AIDS (p ≤ 0.0001), more worried that they would die if they acquired AIDS (p ≤ 0.05), and less likely to think AIDS patients should be isolated (p ≤ 0.0005). Although this AIDS education program appeared to be moderately successful in this group of younger adolescents, significant learning also occurred from testing alone.