AIDS and Abstinence
Growing up as a teenager in today's society is not as easy as it may have been in generations past. Young adults of today's era face many social and environmental issues that plague them with immense stress. For example, violence among youth and, more specifically, school shootings and gang violence strike fear among every adolescent's mind before they face each day at school. And the pressure from peers for using and abusing illegal drugs is as strong as it has ever been. But today, the youth of America are faced with a crisis unique to the modern era; the soaring rate of adolescent AIDS infection. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, causes the terminal Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS weakens the body's immune system to a point where any ordinary infection, such as the flu or common cold, can cause death. Originally thought of as a "Gay-Man's" disease when AIDS was first prevalent in this country in the early eighties, AIDS is now recognized as a major crisis across the country among heterosexuals, in addition to the homosexual population of this country (Mays, Albee, & Schneider, 1989). And in recent years, the rate of occurrence of AIDS among America's youth has increased at an alm
A Decade of Denial: Teens and AIDS in America. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Offices, 1992. ost exponential rate. The statistics are startling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections occurring each year, over twenty-five percent of those infections occur among youth under the age of twenty. In 1986, 53 adolescents were reported with AIDS. One decade later, the number climbed to 403. And just one year later, in 1997, the number of total cases of adolescent AIDS in the United States reached 2,953 (Fuentes, 1998). Today, AIDS is recognized as the fifth most common cause of death among people ranging from ages 14-24 years (A Decade of Denial: Teens and AIDS in America, 1992). Another psychological condition that is a negative consequence of AIDS is "self-efficacy". Self-efficacy of an AIDS patient refers to their perception of their inability to perform a behavior due to their lack of ability, effort, luck, or the difficulty of the situation. AIDS patients view themselves as creatures that do not have the capability to fulfill any task due to their failing physical condition. Their energy is drained and thus they feel lazy feel they don't have the ability to carry out a task (Valdiserri, 1989). URL: http://www.thebody.com/poz/survival/9_98/alright.html Another abstinence program that has been put into effect in schools across the nation is "Aim for Success" (Mays et al., 1989). This program is designed for grades five to seven, and is administered in one-hour presentations. Presentations are limited to fifty students for grades five and six, seventy-five students for grades seven and eight, and one hundred students for high school presentations. The focus of these presentations is to explain to students that abstinence is the only method that is one hundred percent effective in prevention pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and emotional trauma. It is also to raise awareness of how one's dreams and goals are affected by your choices, pregnancy has no easy solutions, the seriousness of sexually transmitted diseases, the effect emotional scars can have on one's life, the failure rate of contraceptives, and the preciousness of the gift of virginity. Parent presentations are also given concurrently with student presentations. These ninety minute programs explain to parents how to comfortably speak about sex with their children, answer questions a child may have about sex without being embarrassed, and how parents should encourage their children to stay sexually pure. Since the 1993-1994 school year, "Aim for Success" has been presented over 8,546 times to over 208,892 people. Anonymous surveys taken by students at the conclusion of student presentations revealed ninety-five percent of students rated the "Aim for Success presentation excellent or good. Also, seventy-seven percent of the students have never had sex, and of those who have had sex, fifty-one percent say they are considering abstinence and twenty-six percent committed to abstinence. And overall, eight-nine percent of students surveyed sat he presentation gave them somethi
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Approximate Word count = 2129
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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