Research Questions

• Where are the parents in HIV education?
• Where are adolescents getting their information about HIV?
• Does an AIDS awareness drama increase parent-adolescent communication?

The theatrical intervention used in this study is designed for young audiences between the ages of 13 and 19 years, a group that is increasingly at risk for contracting HIV. Recent statistics show an alarming increase in AIDS cases involving young people, indicating a lack of effectiveness of AIDS prevention measures directed at this high risk population.

When New Conservatory Theatre Center became the first organization in the nation to develop and produce AIDS theatre education and prevention programs in 1985, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had only reported five AIDS cases among youth in the nation. By the time the proposal for this study had been developed in 1994, the CDC reported that an estimated 34,000 American adolescents were HIV-positive. (HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, Centers for Disease Control, February 1993)

Currently one out of every four new infections in the USA involves people between the ages of 13 and 20. (Presidential Report on Young People and AIDS, Office of National AIDS Policy, March 1996 (wherein National AIDS Policy Director Patricia S. Fleming stated that "at least one American teenager is becoming infected with HIV every hour of every day.")). With youth AIDS cases rising exponentially, it is clear that current prevention and education methods have failed to reach--or persuade--adolescents. (Di Clemente, Ralph (excerpt from Harvard AIDS Letter, February 1993))

Studies have also shown that adolescents' perceptions of their family relationships are associated with health risk behaviors -- that perceived or actual support of adolescent autonomy, such as encouraging the expression of opinions and avoiding overprotection, is inversely related to sexual behavior. In one study, adolescents who were less likely to initiate sexual intercourse were the same ones who perceived their parents as more encouraging of their independence and skill development. (Turner, R.A., Irwin, C.E. Jr., Tschann, J.M., and Millstein, S.G., 1993. "Autonomy, Relatedness, and the Initiation of Health Risk Behaviors in Early Adolescence". Health Psychology, Vol. 12, No. 3, 100-208.)

Parents are often unaware of their children's sexual experience: a 1996 poll of 2,000 mothers and daughters found that 71% of the mothers believed that their daughters were virgins, but only 37% of the daughters claimed that they had not yet become sexually active. This report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation states that roughly 75% of American high school students have engaged in sex by the time they complete the 12th grade. (The Kaiser Survey on Americans and AIDS/HIV, March 1996, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)