AIDS-RISK AMONG STREET CHILDREN AND YOUTH - IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION

With the co-operation of staff and volunteers from non-governmental programmes in nine South African cities, focus group discussions were held with 141 street children and youth, 79 of whom were enrolled in shelter programmes while 62 were still living independently on the streets. The group discussions focused on knowledge about transmission and prevention, attitudes towards AIDS and people with AIDS, and sexual and other behaviours related to AIDS risk. Both quantitative and qualitative information on the topics covered was extracted from the transcriptions of the discussions. The results indicated that, on a superficial level, South African street youth possessed relatively good knowledge about transmission and prevention. However, a more critical analysis showed that knowledge is obscured by moral imputations. In addition, street youth disclosed extremely negative attitudes to condoms and to people with AIDS. Accounts of sexual behaviour confirmed that street children and youth engage in a number of high-risk behaviours. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention and, in particular, the inadequacies of the Health Belief Model and related theories, as the sole theoretical foundation for the design of intervention programmes.