Two Curricular Settings of an HIV Education Unit Related to Secondary School Students' HIV Knowledge and Attitude

Abstract

The problem of the study was to compare the effects of an HIV education unit (HEU) within two curricular settings upon secondary school students' knowledge of and attitude toward HIV prevention behaviors. It was hypothesized that an HEU within a health education class would have a more positive impact that an HEU in a non-health class. Health education and biology classes from three secondary schools in the Midwest participated in a quasi-experimental study. Experimental groups in biology classes (n=38) and health education classes (n=91) received a 5-session HEU, while the control group (n=131) did not receive an HEU. The HEU consisted of lessons from a government-sponsored school AIDS curriculum (Yarber, 1989). All subjects were administered a 45-item questionnaire as a pre-test, posttest, and a four week delayed posttest to determine changes in the dependent variables. No significant changes in HIV prevention knowledge were established. Subjects in the health education classes had a significant improvement of their HIV prevention attitude, while subjects in the other two groups did not. The improvement in attitude was found between the posttest and the delayed test. Based upon the findings we concluded that change in HIV attitude is related to the curricular setting, with significant attitude improvement occurring only in health education classes.