Evaluation of a School-Based Youth HIV Prevention Programme
Overview:
HEARD and its research partners are conducting a retrospective evaluation of a faith-based organisation’s HIV prevention programme. The objective of the programme, administered to adolescents in two schools in a poor urban area of Durban, is to reduce HIV infection rates amongst young people in the area by reducing their risk-taking behaviour in general.
A self-administered survey evaluates the differences between learners who received the programme and control learners. Focus groups provide in-depth insight into how learners and their parents and teachers perceive changes with respect to HIV in their community.
Objectives:
- How has the school-based youth HIV prevention programme affected HIV risk-taking behaviour amongst youth that received it?
- Is there a direct relationship between participation in the programme and HIV risk-taking and other risk-taking behaviours among youth participants?
- Is there an indirect relationship between participation in the programme and HIV risk taking behaviour and other risk taking behaviour amongst youth participants? (i.e. does the programme affect youth risk behavior by influencing psychological dimensions such as self-esteem, hope and resilience?)
- From the perspective of stakeholders (i.e., learners, mentors, teachers, principals and parents), how and why does the programme contribute to HIV prevention?
Methodological approach:
This is a mixed methods HIV prevention school-based programme evaluation conducted in 4 schools – 2 control, 2 intervention – that consists of both a quantitative survey component and a qualitative component.