Family-Based HIV Prevention: An Interactive DVD

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aims of Phase I and Phase II of this proposed SBIR project are to develop and refine an interactive DVD and workbook targeting parent-adolescent communication, parental monitoring and reducing sexual risk behavior among urban black youth who are at high risk for contracting HIV. The final DVD and workbook (completed in Phase II), to be used by both parents and adolescents, will be comprised of three modules and is based on a face-to-face intervention that is demonstrating efficacy in a NIMH randomized trial (R01MH 63008). The goal of this Phase I project is to create an interactive DVD prototype of Module 2 of this intervention, targeting parent-adolescent communication and sexual and substance use risk behavior among high-risk, urban African-American adolescents. MEE (Motivational Educational Entertainment) Productions Inc., a social marketing firm with expertise in urban and ethnic audiences, will partner with Rhode Island Hospital to develop this innovative, culturally relevant prototype. Content for the DVD will be based upon the existing workshop intervention for parents and adolescents (R01 MH 63008; Project STYLE). The DVD package will include risk-reduction and improved communication messages on two DVDs-- one for adolescents ages 12 - 18 and one for the adults in their lives. To validly support the message and design of the prototype, MEE will moderate a total of twelve focus groups with African American parents and adolescents ages 12 - 18, along with community-based organizations and service providers in Philadelphia. Feedback from these groups will inform the production elements for a prototype that represents one of the three modules of the complete package. The DVD prototype, created in Phase I to determine the feasibility and acceptance of using a DVD and workbook to intervene with parents and adolescents around adolescent sexual substance use risk behavior, will focus on: adolescent risk behavior; assertive communication; parent-adolescent communication about sexual and substance use values and risk behaviors. The number of young people contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections continues to grow, with minority populations disproportionately affected. Equipping families to help adolescents make safer sexual decisions can potentially reduce the growing number of annual infections among urban minority communities. This project would "translate" a highly successful face-to-face intervention promoting parent-child communication and parental monitoring to an interactive DVD and workbook format that can be disseminated for use in a variety of settings including schools and community health agencies.