HIV and adolescents

Seroprevalence studies and documented sex and drug use risk behaviors indicate the importance of primary prevention programs for HIV among adolescents. Females and minority adolescents are at particular risk. Prevention workers must decide which strategies to advocate: abstinence, monogamy, HIV testing, screening partners, or explicit instruction of safer acts. Youths must be helped to personalize knowledge of HIV, acquire coping skills, and gain access to health care resources. Programs based on cognitive-behavioral models have been initially successfully in reducing risk behaviors, however, there is a need for more community-wide and media interventions. Adolescents' developmental features require that special attention be paid to implementation issues, including parent and peer involvement in the design of prevention programs.