SUMMARY

This fourteen-session program for high school students emphasizes behavioral skill development. During the first several classes, students study transmission and prevention of HIV, teen vulnerability to the virus and determinants of risky behaviors. In the second half of the program, students learn and repeatedly practice skills to help them identify, manage, avoid and leave risky situations. The final sessions help students integrate what they have learned in the program into their own lives. The program encourages teens to delay having intercourse, or for those youth who do become sexually active, to be sexually monogamous; avoid drugs and alcohol that could cloud one's judgment during intercourse; practice safer sex; get tested for HIV if they believe they are at risk; and avoid sharing needles. A field study of the curriculum was conducted in seventeen Colorado high schools serving rural, suburban and urban populations. In a six month follow-up assessment comparing Get Real about AIDS® participants with a comparison group of peers, sexually-active program participants had fewer sexual partners, purchased and used condoms more frequently, intended to engage in sex less frequently and planned to use condoms when they did. The evaluation data did not record, however, a delay in the onset of sexual activity, a decrease the frequency of sexual activity or a reduction in drug and alcohol use prior to sex.

SUITABLE FOR USE IN

Although it was originally implemented in high school classrooms, this program is equally suitable for use in community-based organizations.

ORIGINAL INTERVENTION SAMPLE

Age, Gender
A total of 2,849 teens participated in the study; the average age was 15 years. 51 % of the teens were male.

Race/Ethnicity
65% White, 21% Latino, 6% African-American, 3% Asian, 5% other.

PROGRAM LENGTH

The program is divided into fourteen class sessions; the sessions can be scheduled to suit your own needs.

STAFFING REQUIREMENTS/TRAINING

The program is led by regular classroom teachers, preferably in health or science classes. Special training for instructors is also available from the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation, the original developers of the program. Videotaping and critiques of practice lessons are also recommended.

PASHA PROGRAM PACKAGE

The PASHA Program Package for this program includes:

• PASHA User's Guide
• Get Real about AIDS® Kit
• Transitions (March 2003), newsletter reprint
• Resource Guide for Sex Educators
• Adolescent Sexual Health Resources Available from Sociometrics
• Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, May 10, 2002
• A Set of Original Evaluation Instruments
• Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS)
• Local Evaluator Consultant Network Directory
  
  
• Telephone technical support on implementation and evaluation for 1 year