Development and Testing of a Jamaican Mother-daughter HIV Risk-reduction Program

Summary

Caribbean nations, including Jamaica, exhibit HIV rates that are second only to sub-Saharan Africa. Jamaican young women and adolescent girls are at particularly high risk due to a number of cultural factors, gender norms, partnering with older male partners, and lack of knowledge and skills related to sexual refusal and HIV prevention. U.S. studies have shown that mothers may act as a key influence of their daughters' sexual risk beliefs and behaviors. However, no such studies have documented these effects outside of the U.S. and no studies have evaluated HIV risk-reduction interventions with Jamaican adolescent girls and their mothers. Hence, the purpose of this study is to partner with the University of the West Indies, Jamaican community based organizations (CBOs) and families in order to develop and test a culture-specific mother-daughter HIV risk-reduction intervention in a randomized field experiment. Specifically, the investigative team will evaluate whether a culture-specific, theory-based, skill-building intervention with Jamaican adolescent girls and their mothers can directly and/or indirectly reduce these girls' HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors. Jamaican girls, ages 13 - 17, and their mothers/female guardians will be recruited from CBOs and randomly assigned to either: (a) a mother-daughter HIV risk-reduction intervention condition or (b) a "no intervention" waitlist control condition. The HIV risk-reduction intervention includes 12 1-hour modules scheduled over 2 days and implemented by trained adult Jamaican women (nurses and CBO staff). The mother component is designed to increase those parenting behaviors (e.g., monitoring and parent-teen sexual risk communication \[PTSRC\]) associated with reduced adolescent sexual risk-taking; the teen component is designed to improve girls' beliefs and skills related to abstinence, sexual negotiation and condom use. A "waitlist" control condition is being employed as the proposed project is a pilot study of the HIV risk-reduction intervention. Primary outcomes include mothers'/daughters' reports of parenting behaviors (monitoring and PTSRC) and daughters' self-reports of sexual risk behaviors (sexual intercourse, unprotected sex, condom use, number of partners). Secondary outcomes include daughters' STI rates, mothers' beliefs regarding parenting behaviors and daughters beliefs regarding sexual risk behaviors.

Conditions

• Parent-Child Relations
• HIV Prevention
• Adolescent Behavior

Interventions

OTHER

Behavioral Intervention

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Pennsylvania

  collaborator OTHER

• New York University

  collaborator OTHER

• Boston College

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mary K Hutchinson, PhD · Boston College

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2007-09-29

Primary Completion

2011-07-28

Completion

2012-06-30