Abstract
Peer-led, school-based interventions show promise for preventing AIDS among adolescents, but little is known about the processes underlying effective peer education or the conditions that promote its efficacy. This study examined the implementation in one school of an effective, peer-led AIDS prevention program for inner-city 7th-grade participants (n = 123) and identified the qualities of peer educators (n = 15) and classroom environments (n = 5) that contributed to improvement in participants' postintervention AIDS-related attitudes. The Peer Educator Rating Scale was developed to assess two dimensions of participants' perceptions of peer educators: “positive regard” and “perceived similarity.” Participants reported greater positive regard for more highly individuated and less shy peer educators, and participants' positive regard for peer educators in turn was associated with lowered AIDS risk as measured by perceptions of peer norms regarding sexual activity and self-efficacy for peer communication regarding sexual topics and condoms. Participants' perceived similarity was not associated with any postintervention improvements in AIDS-related knowledge and attitudes. Participants' classroom membership was associated with improvements in all 5 knowledge and attitude scales, and exploratory classroom-level findings indicated that classroom intervention environments perceived as more organized by participants showed slightly greater overall improvements across AIDS-related knowledge and attitudes scales. Consistent with individual-level findings regarding participants' positive regard for peer educators, the two classrooms with the greatest positive regard for their peer educator teams showed the most student improvement. Implications for further research and the design of future prevention and promotion programs for adolescents are discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
REFERENCES
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1992). A social cognitive approach to the exercise of control over AIDS infection. In R. J. DiClemente (Ed.), Adolescents and AIDS: A generation in jeopardy. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Brown, L. K., Fritz, G. K., & Barone, V. J. (1989). The impact of AIDS education on junior and senior high school students. Journal of Adolescent Health Care, 10, 386–392.
Bryk, A. S., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Catania, J. A., Coates, T. J., Stall R., Bye, L, et al. (1991). Chages in condom use among homosexual men in San Francisco. Health Psychology, 10, 190–199.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1995). HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report 1995, 7(1).
Cheek, J. M., & Buss, A. H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330–339.
Chen, H., & Rossi, P. H. (1983). Evaluating with sense: The theory-driven approach. Evaluation Review, 7, 283–302.
Chen, H., & Rossi, P. H. (1989). Issues in the theory-driven perspective. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12, 299–306.
Cherniss, C. (1991). Confronting the social context of school change. American Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 389–394.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multipled regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
DiClemente, R. J. (1993). Preventing HIV/AIDS among adolescents: Schools as agents of behavior change. Journal of the American Medical Association, 270, 760–763.
DiClemente, R. J., Durbin, M., Siegle, D., Krasnovsky, F., Lazarus, N., & Comacho, T. (1992). Determinants of condom use among junior high school students in a minority inner-city school district. Pediatrics, 89, 197–292.
Ekstrand, M., Siegel, D., Nido, V., Faigeles, B., Cummings, G., Battle, R., Krasnovsky, F., Chiment, E., & Coates, T. J. (1996). Peer-led AIDS prevention delays onset of sexual activity and changes peer norms among urban junior high school students. Manuscript submitted for publication, University of California-San Francisco Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.
Fisher, J. D. (1988). Possible effects of reference group-based social influence on AIDS-risk behavior and AIDS prevention. American Psychologist, 43, 914–920.
Fraser, B. J. (1985). Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.
Fraser, B. J. (1989). Twenty years of classroom climate work: Progress and prospect. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 21, 307–327.
Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1982). Predicting students' outcomes from their perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment. American Educational Research Journal, 19, 498–518.
Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1983a). Student achievement as a function of person-environment fit: A regression surface analysis. British Journal of Educationa Psychology, 53, 89–99.
Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1983b). Use of actual and preferred Classroom Environment Scales in person-environment fit research. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 303–313.
Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1983c). Effects of classroom openness on science students' achievement and attitudes. Research in Science & Technological Education 1, 41–51.
Grusec, J. E., & Skubiski, S. L. (1970). Model nurturance, demand characteristics of the modeling experiment, and altruism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 14, 352–359.
Haertal, G. D., Walberg, H. J., & Haertal, E. H. (1981). Socio-psychological environments and learning: A quantitative synthesis. British Educational Research Journal, 7, 27–32.
Haladyna, T., Olsen, R., & Shaugnessy, J. (1982). Relations of student, teacher, and learning environment variables to attitudes towards science. Science Education, 66, 671–687.
Haladyna, T., Shaugnessy, J., & Redsun (1982a). Correlates of attitudes toward social studies. Theory and Research in Social Education, 10, 1–26.
Haladyna, T., Shaugnessy, J., & Redsun (1982b). Relations of student, teacher, and learning environment variables to attitudes towards social studies. Journal of Social Studies Research, 6, 36–44.
Harty, H., & Hassan, H. A. (1983). Student control ideology and the science classroom environment in urban secondary schools of Sudan. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 20, 851–859.
Howard, M., & McCabe, J. A. (1990). Helping teenagers postpone sexual involvement. Family Planing Perspectives 22, 21–26.
Jay, M. S., Durant, R. H., Shoffitt, T., et al. (1984). Effect of peer counselors on adolescent compliance in use of oral contraceptives. Pediatrics, 73, 126–131.
Jemmott, J. B., Jemmott, L. S., & Fong, G. T. (1992). Reductions in HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors among Black male adolescents: Effects of an AIDS prevention intervention. American Journal of Public Health, 82, 372–377.
Judd, C. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1981). Process analysis: Estimating mediation in treatment evaluations. Evaluation Review, 5, 602–619.
Kegeles, S. M., Adler, N. E., & Irwin, C. E. (1988). Sexually active adolescents and condoms: Changes over the year in knowledge, attitudes, and use. American Journal of Public Health, 78, 460–461.
Kirby, D., Short, L., Collins, J., Rugg, D., Kolbe, L., Howard, M., Miller, B., Sonenstein, F., & Zabin, L. S. (1994). School-based programs to reduce sexual risk behaviors: A review of effectiveness. Public Health Reports, 109, 339–359.
Koepsell, T. D., Wagner, E. H., Cheadle, A. C., Patrick, D. L., Martin, D. C., Diehr, P. H., Perrin, E. B., Kristal, A. R., Allan-Andrilla, C. H., & Dey, L. J. (1992). Selected methodological issues in evaluating community-based health promotion and disease prevention programs. Annual Review of Public Health, 13, 31–57.
Lamberty, G., Papai, J., & Kessel, W. (eds.). (1996). Proceedings of the Fourth National Title V Maternal and Child Health Research Priorities Conference. Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health.
Lipsey, M. W. (1990). Theory as method: Small theories of treatment. In L. Sechrest, E. Perin, & J. Bunker (Eds.), AHCPR conference proceedings. Research methodology: Strengthening causal interpretations of non-experimental data (pp. 33–51). (DHHS Publication No. 90-3454). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Marin, B. V. (1995). Analysis of AIDS Prevention among African American and Latinos in the United States. Prepared for the Office of Technology Assessment U.S. Congress.
Maslach, C., Stapp, J., & Santee, R. T. (1985). Individuation: Conceptual analysis and assessment. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 49, 729–738.
Moos, R. H. (1973). Conceptualizations of human environments. American Psychologist, 28, 652–665.
Moos, R. H. (1979). Evaluating educational environments: A social ecological approach. New York: Wiley.
Moos, R. H., & Trickett, E. J. (1987). Classroom Environment Scale Manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
National Community AIDS Partnership. (1993). A generation at risk: A background report on HIV prevention and youth. Washington DC: National Community AIDS Partnership.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (1994). NIDA school-based prevention intervention research (Program announcement PA-94-061). Washington, DC: National Institutes of Health.
National Institute of Nursing Research. (1993). Health promotion for older children and adolescents. Washington, DC: National Institute of Health.
Perry, C., Grant, M., Ernberg, G., Florenzano, R. U., & Langdon, M. C. (1989). WHO Collaborative study on alcohol education and young people: Outcomes of a four-country pilot study. International Journal of the Addictions, 24, 1145–1171.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Schultz, R. (1982). Teaching style and sociopsychological climates. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 28, 9–18.
Scott, A. G., & Sechrest, L. (1989). Strength of theory and theory of strength. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12, 329–336.
Siegel, D. (1992). The Healthy Oakland Teens Questionnaire Unpublished survey developed by the Prevention Sciences Group, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Slonim-Nevo, V., Ozawa, M. N., & Auslander, W. F. (1991). Knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to AIDS among youth in residential centers: Results from an exploratory study. Journal of Adolescence, 14, 17–33.
Stall, R., Coates, T. J., & Hoff, C. (1988). Behavioral risk reduction for HIV infection among gay and bisexual men: A review of results from the United States. Special Issue: Psychology and AIDS. American Psychologist, 43, 878–885.
Stevenson, H. C., & Davis, G. (1994). Impact of culturally sensitive AIDS video education on the AIDS risk knowledge of African American adolescents. AIDS Education and Prevention, 6, 40–52.
St. Lawrence, J. S., Brasfield, T. L., Jefferson, K. W., Alleyne, E., O'Bannon, R. E., & Shirley, A. (1995). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63(2), 221–237.
Tobler, N. S. (1986). Meta-analysis of 143 adolescent drug prevention programs: Quantitative outcome results of program participants compared to a control or comparison group. Journal of Drug Issues, 16, 537–567.
Trickett, E., & Moos, R. (1974). Personal correlates of contrasting environments: Student satisfaction in high school classrooms. American Journal of Community Psychology, 2, 1–12.
van Ryn, M., & Vinokur, A. D. (1992). How did it work? An examination of the mechanisms through which an intervention for the unemployed promoted job-search behavior. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 577–597.
Walter, N. J., & Vaughan, R. D. (1993). AIDS risk reduction among a multiethnic sample of urban high school students. Journal of the American Medical Association, 270, 725–730.
Whitney, K., Sagrestano, L. M., & Maslach, C. (1994). Establishing the social impact of individuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1140–1153.
Worth, D., & Rodriguez, R. (1987). Latina women and AIDS. SIECUS Report, pp. 5–7.
Yussen, S. R., & Levy, V. M. (1975). Effects of warm and neutral models on the attention of observational learners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 20, 66–72.
Zimbardo, P. G., & Leippe, M. R. (1991). The psychology of attitude change and social influence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ozer, E.J., Weinstein, R.S., Maslach, C. et al. Adolescent AIDS Prevention in Context: The Impact of Peer Educator Qualities and Classroom Environments on Intervention Efficacy. Am J Community Psychol 25, 289–323 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024624610117
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024624610117