This study examined the messages perceived by adolescent girls with orphanhood to influence their sexual decision making. Participants were 125 students (mean age = 14.7 years), 54% of whom attended church schools in a rural district of eastern Zimbabwe. We collected and analyzed data using concept mapping, a mixed method approach that enabled the…

Background: Numerous studies document support for sexuality education to be taught in high school, and often, in middle school. However, little research has been conducted addressing support for sexuality education in elementary schools. Methods: As part of the state Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Survey administration, the…

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) has been recognised globally as key to helping young people assert their sexual and reproductive rights. In India too, there is growing awareness of the importance of providing CSE not only to reduce sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies and abortions but also to teach important life…

The ubiquity of cellphones in South Africa, a country ravaged by HIV and AIDS, makes cellphones an easily accessible tool to use in participatory approaches to addressing HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome)issues, particularly in school contexts. In this article we explore a participatory visual…

The onset of a chronic disease influences other roles or identities. For example, an HIV or AIDS diagnosis can affect a person's work identity (Bedell, 1997). In this article, we explored how living with HIV/AIDS shapes other identities. Thirty-six individuals living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants'…

This article makes the case that there has been insufficient global attention to the health and development of children in the second decade of life. The author uses her vantage point of UNICEF to identify that institution's history of accomplishments for younger children and the opportunity to increase its work on adolescents, in collaboration…

Minorities are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the rural Southeast; therefore, it is important to develop targeted, culturally appropriate interventions to support rural minority participation in HIV/AIDS research. Using intervention mapping, we developed a comprehensive multilevel intervention for service providers (SPs) and people…

This paper draws on engagements with "voice" in youth studies and "student voice" work in order to interrogate the limits and opportunities of the call to "youth voice" in HIV prevention discourses. Building on the limitations and opportunities within the debates of the "who", "what" and "how" of speaking and the construction of the youth subject,…

School going children have a broad range of needs at any given point in time. If these needs are not met, they may experience barriers to learning and development, which can result in the breakdown of the learning process or even total exclusion. Barriers to learning and development affect learners differently, but nothing threatens their…

Social issues such as HIV/AIDS, bullying, and violence have recently come to the fore in schooling and related research in South Africa. This article describes and critically analyses Masters and Ph.D. research done in education in the period 1995-2004, with particular reference to the voice given to social issues, namely: gender, violence, and…

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related education is seen by many as central to increasing young people's awareness of, as well as decreasing their vulnerability to, HIV. There is less agreement, however, on the central goals of HIV- and AIDS-related education and the form it might best take. This…

We conducted a systematic review of qualitative evidence relating to the views and attitudes of men who have sex with men (MSM) concerning testing for HIV. Studies conducted in high-income countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development members) since 1996 were included. Seventeen studies were identified, most of gay or bisexual…

By taking a reflexive approach to research methodology, this article contributes to discussions on power dynamics and knowledge production in the social studies of children. The author describes and analyzes three research methods that she used with children--drawing, child-led tape-recording and focus group discussions. These methods were carried…

PartyIntents examines whether portal survey methods could be used to anonymously survey gay and bisexual men about HIV-risk behaviors before and after a weekend party-oriented vacation. The study recruited 97% of eligible men and of these 489 participants 47% completed the follow-up assessment. Approximately one half of the men intended to use…

Critiques of child participation within aid programming suggest that it is superficial and insubstantive for the fulfilment of children's rights. By employing former child research participants as youth research assistants, the collaborative research design developed for my research project on the survival strategies of African orphans and…