Original articleTapping youth as agents for change: evaluation of a peer leadership HIV/AIDS intervention
Section snippets
Design
A quasi-experimental nonrandomized design was used. The sample consisted of 235 adolescents drawn from nine communities in Massachusetts. Peer leaders (n = 164) were recruited from Protect Teen Health Programs in Boston (n = 34), Cambridge (n = 15), Brockton/New Bedford (n = 15), Lawrence (n = 18), Salem (n = 16), Framingham (n = 16), Worcester (n = 9), Springfield (n = 37), and Holyoke (n = 4). Adolescents participating in community and school-based programs served as a comparison group (n =
Characteristics of peer leaders
Table 1 displays the characteristics of study groups I and II. There were no significant demographic differences between newly enrolled peer leaders and comparison group youth, except for age. Newly enrolled peer leaders were slightly younger than comparison youth. Most newly enrolled peer leaders and comparison youth reported that they were not sexually active, did not feel pressured to have sex, and did not perceive their risk of HIV infection as high.
Repeat peer leaders were, on average, 1.4
Discussion
This first outcome evaluation of the Protect Teen Health program examined the impact of a peer leadership program on newly enrolled adolescent peer leaders and adolescents who re-enrolled as peer educators (repeat peer leaders). To determine program effectiveness we compared newly enrolled peer leaders and a comparison group. To assess durability of results we compared newly enrolled and repeat peer leaders. To date, the published literature has not addressed the effect of peer leadership
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, HIV/AIDS Bureau, under a contract to the Medical Foundation. We thank Kevin Cranston of the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and Steve Ridini of the Medical Foundation for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank the members of the evaluation committee whose dedication, commitment, and hard work on behalf of this project made the evaluation possible. Special
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- a
Dr. Pearlman is currently affiliated with Brown University;
- b
Dr. Camberg is currently an independent consultant.