Reducing Adolescent Sexual Risk: A Theoretical - ETR Associates

a. Presentations and discussions of accuratestatistical information about the likelihoodof getting pregnant and contracting an STD.These can include national data on teen pregnancyand STD rates or local data on theserates. Local data are especially effective if therates are higher than the national data.b. Activities that demonstrate that teens’ chancesof becoming pregnant continually increaseeach time they have unprotected sex. Mostteens will become pregnant within a year ifthey frequently have unprotected sex. (SeeActivity 4-1: Pregnancy Risk.)c. Interactive activities that model how teensbecome part of rapidly expanding sexualnetworks if they have sex with more than oneperson, on average, and how STDs can rapidlyspread through these sexual networks.If STDs, and especially sexually transmittedHIV, are the focus, programs should includeinteractive activities that demonstrate thatSTDs, and especially HIV, spread more rapidlywhen people have concurrent sexual relationshipsinstead of sequential relationships. (SeeActivity 4-2: STD Handshake.)d. Assessment of the risk of acquiring an STDthrough different activities. For example,students can rate or rank the risk of differentsexual activities, the educator can make surethe rating or ranking are correct and then theclass can discuss the ratings. (See Activity 4-3:STD Risks.)e. Videos, roleplays or other activities involvingyouth like those in the class, which emphasizethat young people can become pregnant(cause a pregnancy) or contract an STD ifthey have unprotected sex. These activitiesshould emphasize the negative consequencesof unplanned pregnancy or STD at their age.Ideally, they should depict both short-termand long-term consequences and consequencesthat matter to the young people. For example,if a group of youth does not believe they willgraduate from high school anyway or that theywill live very long, then focusing on the effectsof childbearing on high school graduationor on long-term effects may not be effective.Clearly, these activities should not glamorizeor trivialize unplanned parenthood, as somemagazines and movies have.f. Activities that rebut myths that adolescentscommonly have about becoming pregnant orcontracting an STD. These include myths suchas: “Pregnancy will not occur if people have sexonly once”; “raising a child alone is not a bigdeal”; and “you can tell if your partner has anSTD by his/her appearance.”3. Use a variety of teaching strategies to describe,illustrate, model and personalize the consequencesof becoming pregnant or contractingan STD. These should include the following:a. Activities to help youth think about howparenting would affect them in the short term,e.g., continuing in school, how they spendtheir weekends and their relationships withtheir friends.b. Activities to help youth think about what theywant to do in the future and how becoming aparent would affect what they want to do. (SeeActivity 4-1: Pregnancy Risk.)c. Activities to help them think about the consequencesof some STDs (e.g., how it wouldfeel to tell their sexual partners that they hadan STD and may have infected them, what itwould be like if they had genital warts, howan STD would affect their sex lives, how itwould feel to tell all future partners that theyhad herpes, how their lives would change ifthey contracted HIV, or how their lives wouldchange if they became sterile).d. One or more activities depicting youth likethemselves (if possible) having an STD, havingHIV, being sterile, etc. These depictions shouldbe balanced and accurate. They should notoverly dramatize the effects of having differentSTDs, but they should not trivialize them,either. They also should not increase stigmaagainst those people who may have an STD,including HIV.Chapter 4 Improving Perceptions of Risks—Both Susceptibility and Severity 47