HIV Prevention Intervention Outcome among Minority Adolescents in Court Mandated Drug Treatment

Problem statement: Delinquent adolescents with substance abuse disorders frequently engage in behaviors that elevate their risk of contracting HIV. Although effective risk reduction interventions are urgently needed, there is uncertainty about the nature of interventions required to produce change. Approach: This study evaluated whether Modified version of Becoming A Responsible Teen (M-BART) produced greater reductions in drug use and sexual risk behaviors than an Anger Management (AM) condition among a mixed gender, culturally diverse sample of adolescents in court-ordered substance dependence treatment. Results: No significant differences were found between M-BART (n = 70) and AM (n = 59) groups in degree of change between intake and outcome in HIV sex risk or drug use behaviors. However, across groups, meaningful reductions were found in total number of sex partners and in proportions of total unprotected sex acts, unprotected vaginal sex, unprotected oral giving sex acts and unprotected oral receiving sex acts from baseline to follow-up (all p's<0.05). Conclusion: Factors that accounted for meaningful changes across groups and no change between intervention outcomes were discussed. While the M-BART intervention impacted the adolescents directly by teaching skills about how to reduce risky sex, the AM intervention and also impacted higher order factor, impulsivity, linked to risky sex and drug use. Implications for HIV prevention among minority adolescents were discussed.