Published in:
01-02-2014
Does Early Intervention Prevent Health-Risking Sexual Behaviors Related to HIV/AIDS?
Authors:
Eve E. Reider, Elizabeth B. Robertson, Belinda E. Sims
Published in:
Prevention Science
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Special Issue 1/2014
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Excerpt
Adolescence and young adulthood are developmental stages full of social and economic opportunities and challenges, as young people learn about themselves and experiment with adult behaviors and roles. Unfortunately for many in these age groups, involvement with drugs and associated health-risking sexual behaviors (HRSB) becomes part of these important life transitions, interrupting the course of healthy development. For decades, families, schools, and communities have struggled to find the best ways to raise adolescents and support young adults toward happy, healthy, and productive lives. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has also attended to this important public health issue through funding research dedicated to understanding the role of malleable risk and protective factors for drug use, abuse, and co-occurring mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders and using that knowledge for research devoted to the testing of associated prevention intervention strategies. The results of these latter efforts have demonstrated that theory- and etiologically based interventions delivered in childhood can delay or prevent the onset of MEB disorders, including drug abuse and associated HRSB, among adolescents and young adults (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine
2009). …