Developing cognitive tools to understand the mechanisms of HIV/AIDS prevention in Kenyan Primary Schools

The impact of HIV/AIDS continues to be devastating in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease affects the most economically active members of society and the death of young adults leaves millions of children orphaned. The cost of anti-retroviral therapy renders treatment impossible in under-developed countries. Preventing transmission of the virus is the key to controlling and containing the epidemic.

School-age children, between the ages of 5 and 14, offer a 'window of hope' for implementing a prevention program. Children of this age have low infection rates and their patterns of sexual behavior have not yet been established. The education system offers a sustainable, cost-effective way of delivering HIV/AIDS prevention messages to the majority of this age-group.

Evaluations of adult HIV prevention programs in Africa have demonstrated some success at increasing knowledge about the disease, but this knowledge does not always translate to changes in behavior. Can the effectiveness of such interventions be increased if appropriate educational programs are developed for school-aged children?

The investigators believe that more effective programs can be designed if they are built around what and how children understand disease and its relation to behavior. The workshops and pilot research proposed here will explore how three cognitive factors interact with health behavior: perceived locus of control of health behavior; the causal understanding of disease; and practical intelligence and life skills. The immediate goals are to develop guidelines for designing educational programs and assessment tools to measure program effectiveness.