Assessing the impact of educational intervention on the AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors of college women
Abstract
In recent years, the presence of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has resulted in moral and social dilemmas of previously unparalleled proportions. Initially, women were not considered as capable of contracting this debilitating disease. However, recent estimates indicate the number of new cases in women are increasing at an alarmingly high rate. To date, in lieu of a medical cure, education is documented as the key to prevent further spread of the disease. The presented study examined whether educational intervention could increase college students' AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, the effects of interactive and didactic AIDS-related educational intervention were compared. As a pre-test, members of the two intervention groups and the control group were asked to complete the College and University Student AIDS Survey. After experiencing educational intervention, subjects were asked to complete a post-test. After attrition, a total of 82 subjects participated in the study. The data gathered were used to measure changes in the respondents' AIDS-related attitudes and behaviors. The results of the study supported the contention that educational intervention increased positive AIDS-related attitudes and safer AIDS-related behaviors of college women. However, the findings suggested that no differences existed in the AIDS-related attitudes or behaviors between the group that experienced the didactic educational intervention and the group that experienced the interactive educational intervention. Additionally, the results suggested that there was no increase in the relationship between positive AIDS-related attitudes and safer AIDS-related behaviors after experiencing educational intervention. It was concluded that further research was needed to study the variables using a multiple-session intervention approach.
This paper has been withdrawn.