Tough Times¿Pro-Health Choices for Adolescents

This project plans to use innovative techniques to produce educational video modules related to adolescent mental health issues, and to test their effectiveness. The modules provide a short trigger video and a teacher's guide. A set of 7 modules is proposed with particular attention to issues identified by the National Adolescent Student Health Survey as crucial to the mental health of today's youth (i. e. HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, adverse peer pressure, issues of violence, and the need for ethnic groups to live together). In Phase I, one multi- component video module will be produced and evaluated. The video in Phase I will be tested as a "live-acted" script versus a lecture format presentation, and as a live-acted production versus the same video enhanced with clay animation inserts. Innovations in this project include the use of clay animation; the evaluation of the product; scripts on controversial issues acceptable in most learning environments; scripts and teacher's books designed to incorporate features considered important by social action theory to support behavior change, and production of an integrated series of modules. In Phase II, 6 more modules would be produced and evaluated both separately and as part of a package.