Preventing HIV through Affect Management for High-Risk Early Adolescents

描述(由申请人提供)：早期青少年由于在发育期间开始的危险行为(例如，无保护措施的性行为、药物滥用)而面临感染艾滋病毒的风险，延迟开始这种风险可能会对青少年未来的健康产生重大影响。由于情绪、行为和药物使用因素，许多早期青少年感染艾滋病毒的风险很高。在所有这些问题的背后，是影响监管方面的困难。情绪反应似乎干扰了在传统健康教育或艾滋病毒预防计划中学习的认知技能的使用，最近的证据突显了情感调节失调在增加青少年性行为危险行为的可能性方面的作用。此外，青春期早期是青少年发展对情绪的理解和调节情绪的能力的时期。这些发现表明，可以接触到脆弱的早期青少年的干预措施在解决与风险情况相关的情感因素方面发挥了重要作用，例如涉及性、酒精和药物的情况，以减少艾滋病毒危险行为。该项目在艾滋病毒危险行为社会个人框架的指导下，将针对罗德岛州普罗维登斯县城市初中的高危早期青少年(那些表现出情绪、行为或药物使用风险的人)。这项随机对照试验将评估情感管理技能干预的有效性，并与对照条件(一般健康促进)进行比较，以减少432名高危七年级学生的危险行为，他们将接受为期三年的跟踪调查。在降低性行为风险方面，干预的效果将取决于自我报告的性行为减少、情绪调节技能的改善，以及脆弱的早期青少年中与艾滋病毒和禁欲相关的态度的差异。从这个项目中获得的信息将提高我们对如何防止青少年从事艾滋病毒危险行为的理解。这一项目代表着艾滋病毒预防方面的创新进展，在学校环境中的实施对各地早期青少年的可持续性和相关性具有很大潜力。 公共卫生相关性：从这个项目中获得的信息将提高我们对如何防止青少年从事艾滋病毒危险行为的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Early Adolescents are at risk for HIV due to risk behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, substance abuse) initiated during this developmental period, and delaying initiation into this risk can have a significant impact on an adolescent's future health. Many early adolescents are at high risk for contracting HIV due to emotional, behavioral, and substance use factors. Underlying all of these problems are difficulties with affect regulation. Emotional reactivity appears to interfere with the use of cognitive skills learned in traditional health education or HIV prevention programs, and recent evidence highlights the role of affect dysregulation in increasing the likelihood of sexual risk behaviors among adolescents. Also, early adolescence is a time when teens are developing their understanding of emotions and their ability to regulate affect. These findings suggest an important role for an intervention that can reach vulnerable early adolescents to address emotional factors associated with risk situations, such as those involving sex, alcohol, and drugs, in order to reduce HIV risk behaviors. This project, guided by the Social Personal Framework of HIV Risk Behavior, will target high-risk early adolescents (those who exhibit emotional, behavioral, or substance use risks) at urban junior high schools in Providence County, Rhode Island. This randomized, controlled trial will evaluate the efficacy of an Affect Management skills intervention in comparison to a control condition (General Health Promotion) for reducing risk behaviors with 432 high-risk seventh graders who will be followed for three years. The efficacy of the intervention in reducing sexual risk will be determined by less self-reported sexual behavior, improved emotion regulation skills, and differences in HIV- and abstinence-related attitudes among vulnerable early adolescents. The information gained in this project will improve our understanding of how to prevent early teens from engaging in HIV risk behaviors. This project represents an innovative progression in HIV prevention whose implementation in school settings has great potential for sustainability and relevance for early adolescents everywhere. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The information gained in this project will improve our understanding of how to prevent early teens from engaging in HIV risk behaviors.