Preventing HIV through Affect Management for High-Risk Early Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：由于危险行为（例如，无保护的性行为，药物滥用）在这一发展时期开始，推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。许多早期青少年由于情绪、行为和物质使用因素而处于感染艾滋病毒的高风险之中。所有这些问题的根本是情感调节的困难。情绪反应似乎会干扰在传统健康教育或艾滋病预防计划中学到的认知技能的使用，最近的证据强调了情绪失调在增加青少年性风险行为可能性方面的作用。此外，青春期早期是青少年发展他们对情绪的理解和调节情绪的能力的时期。这些研究结果表明，干预措施可以达到脆弱的早期青少年，以解决与风险情况相关的情感因素，如涉及性，酒精和毒品，以减少艾滋病毒的危险行为的重要作用。该项目由艾滋病毒风险行为社会个人框架指导，将针对罗得岛普罗维登斯县城市初中的高危青少年（表现出情绪、行为或物质使用风险的青少年）。这项随机对照试验将评估情感管理技能干预与对照条件（一般健康促进）相比在减少432名高风险七年级学生的风险行为方面的有效性，这些学生将被随访三年。干预措施在降低性风险方面的有效性将取决于自我报告的性行为减少、情绪调节技能的提高以及脆弱的早期青少年中艾滋病毒和禁欲相关态度的差异。在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风险行为的理解。该项目代表了艾滋病毒预防方面的一个创新进展，在学校环境中实施该项目具有很大的可持续性和对各地青少年的相关性。 公共卫生相关性：在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风险行为的理解。

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.