Live or Virtual? Comparing Two Versions of AMP!, A Theater-Based Sexual Health Intervention for Adolescents

Abstract

Theater-based approaches have been implemented globally as a health education and behavior change strategy for decades. Studies have shown that live theater performances can engage an audience and influence the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of audience members. Moreover, literature has shown that adolescents find theater-based interventions to be more acceptable and memorable than traditional didactic teaching methods. Few studies, however, have compared the effect of different intervention delivery modes on adolescents’ sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. The present study aims to fill this gap in the literature and to evaluate the efficacy of two delivery modes (live and virtual) of a theater-based sexual health intervention for promoting sexual health strategies among adolescents. A total of 300 high school students were included in this study. Participants in both the live and virtual modes reported increased HIV knowledge and improved safe sex self-efficacy, suggesting that the live and virtual modes have comparable impact. Given the low cost and resource demands, these findings support the utilization of a virtual program as a promising practice for disseminating a sexual health intervention targeting adolescents on a large scale.

Keywords:

• Theater
• virtual
• sexual health intervention
• adolescent
• safe sex self-efficacy
• HIV knowledge

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participating LAUSD high schools, the members of UCLA Sex Squad, and the entire UCLA Art & Global Health Center team for their contributions to this study. Without their insight, creativity, and generous assistance this project would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a seed grant from the UCLA AIDS Institute, UCLA Center for AIDS Research [AI28697], and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Institute at UCLA, NCRR and NCATS [UL1TR000124]. Additional program support was provided by the Clarence and Anne Dillon Dunwalke Charitable Trust, Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Ford Foundation [Grant 1120–1496], David and Linda Shaheen Foundation, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.