Dyadic, Small Group, and Community-Level Behavioral Interventions for STD/HIV Prevention

Abstract

STD/HIV prevention efforts, including education, information, and counseling, have frequently been used to motivate individuals to reduce their risk behaviors. Many of these prevention approaches are drawn from theories that link risk behavior to individual psychological processes such as cognition, beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, and perception of risk (1). Although these approaches can help individuals initiate risk-reduction steps and make short-term changes in their risk behaviors, most individual beliefs, attitudes, and, ultimately, behaviors are influenced by the larger environmental and community contexts within which they reside (2). Therefore, long-lasting maintenance of protective behaviors is likely only when peer group social norms, relationships, the environment, and public health policies support personal behavior change effort (2,3). Thus, prevention may also target the community, or special groups of individuals at higher risk for, or more vulnerable to STD/HIV (4). This chapter will focus on and provide examples of STD/HIV interventions that target couples, small groups, and communities.