Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Reducing HIV and AIDS through Prevention (RHAP): A Theoretically Based Approach for Teaching HIV Prevention to Adolescents through an Exploration of Popular Music

  • Published:
Journal of Urban Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Using popular culture to engage students in discussions of HIV prevention is a nontraditional approach that may complement current prevention efforts and enhance the ability to reach youth who are at high risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Hip-hop or rap music is the dominant genre of music among adolescents, especially Black and Latino youth who are disproportionately impacted by HIV and AIDS. This paper describes the rationale and development of the Reducing HIV and AIDS through Prevention (RHAP) program, a school-based program that uses hip-hop/rap music as a vehicle for raising awareness among adolescents about HIV/AIDS. Constructs from the Social Cognitive Theory and the Sexual Script Theory were used in developing the program. It was piloted and evaluated among 26 middle school students in East Harlem, New York. The lessons learned from a formative evaluation of the program and the implications for developing other programs targeting public health problems are discussed. The RHAP program challenges the traditional pedagogue–student paradigm and provides an alternative approach to teaching about HIV prevention and awareness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene. The health of Brooklyn. Available at: http://www.nyc.gov/health. Accessed December 3, 2008.

  2. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Vital Signs: A Report of from the New York City Youth Risk Behavior Survey, vol. 6 issue 3; 2007.

  3. Hygiene NYCDoMHa. Surveillance and Epidemiology Reports: NYC Pediatric/Adolescent HIV/AIDS Surveillance; 2007.

  4. Hygiene NYCDoHaM. Youth risk behavior survey: health behaviors among youth in East and Central Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, and the South Bronx. Available at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/episrv/episrv. Accessed December 3, 2008.

  5. Resnicow K, Baranowski T, Ahluwalia JS, Braithwaite RL. Cultural sensitivity in public health: defined and demystified. Ethn Dis. 1999; 9(1): 10–21.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Stephens T, Braithwaite RL, Taylor SE. Model for using hip-hop music for small group HIV/AIDS prevention counseling with African American adolescents and young adults. Patient Educ Couns. 1998; 35(2): 127–137.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Tyson EH. Hip hop therapy: an exploratory study of a rap music intervention with at-risk and delinquent youth. J Poet Ther. 2002; 15(32002): 131–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Martino SC, Collins RL, Elliott MN, Strachman A, Kanouse DE, Berry SH. Exposure to degrading versus nondegrading music lyrics and sexual behavior among youth. Pediatrics. 2006; 118(2): e430–e441.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Mark A. Adolescents discuss themselves and drugs through music. J Subst Abuse Treat. 1986; 3(4): 243–249.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Roberts DF, Foehr UG, Rideout V. Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year-Olds. Menlo Park: Henry J. Kaiser Foundation; 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Leach A. One day it'll all make sense: hop-hop and rap resources for music librarians. Available at: http://muse.jhu.edu/. Accessed December 3, 2008.

  12. Guo J, Chung IJ, Hill KG, Hawkins JD, Catalano RF, Abbott RD. Developmental relationships between adolescent substance use and risky sexual behavior in young adulthood. J Adolesc Health. 2002; 31(4): 354–362.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Hall PD. The relationship between types of rap music and memory in African American children. J Black Stud. 1998; 28(6): 802–814.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Pardun CJ, Ladin L'Engle K, Brown JD. Linking exposure to outcomes: early adolescents' consumption of sexual content in six media. Mass Commun Soc. 2005; 8(8): 75–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Brown JD, L'Engle KL, Pardun CJ, Guo G, Kenneavy K, Jackson C. Sexy media matter: exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines predicts black and white adolescents' sexual behavior. Pediatrics. 2006; 117(4): 1018–1027.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Wingood GM, DiClemente RJ, Bernhardt JM, et al. A prospective study of exposure to rap music videos and African American female adolescents' health. Am J Public Health. 2003; 93(3): 437–439.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Peterson SH, Wingood GM, DiClemente RJ, Harrington K, Davies S. Images of sexual stereotypes in rap videos and the health of African American female adolescents. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2007; 16(8): 1157–1164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Tyson EH. Hip hop therapy: an exploratory study of a rap music intervention with at-risk and delinquent youth. J Poet Ther. 2002; 15(3): 1567–2344.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Allen NMT. Exploring hip-hop therapy with high-risk youth. Available at: http://www.luc.edu/socialwork/praxis/pdfs/praxis_article4.pdf; 2005. Accessed December 3, 2008.

  20. Stephens DP, Few Al. The effects of images of African American women in hip hop on early adolescents' attitudes toward physical attractiveness and interpersonal relationships. Sex Roles. 2007; 56: 251–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Stokes CE, Gant LM. Turning the tables on the HIV/AIDS epidemic: hip hop as a tool for reaching African-American adolescent girls. Afr Am Res Perspect. 2002; 8: 70–81.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Glanz K, Lewis FM, Rimer BK. Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wingood GM, DiClemente RJ. The use of psychosocial models for guiding the design and implementation of HIV prevention interventions. Translating theory into practice. In: Gibney L, DiClemente RJ, Vermund SH, eds. Preventing HIV in Developing Countries Biomedical and Behavioral Approaches. New York: Kluwer Academic; 1999:187–204.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Simon W, Gagnon JH. Sexual scripts: origins, influences and changes. Qual Sociol. 2003; 26(4): 1573–7837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Stokes CE. Representin' in cyberspace: sexual scripts, self-definition, and hip hop culture in Black American adolescent girls' home pages. Cult Health Sex. 2007; 9(2): 169–184.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Community Health Profiles. 2006.

  27. New York City Department of Education. HIV/AIDS Curriculum. A Supplement to a Comprehensive Health Curriculum.

  28. Brush T. The effects on student achievement and attitudes when using integrated learning systems with cooperative pairs. Education Tech Research Dev. 1997; 45(1): 1556–6501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Morse JM, Field PA, et al. Qualitative Research Methods for Health Professionals. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage; 1995.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Weill Medical College, Cornell University, 525 East 68th Street, Room F1421, Box 46, New York, NY, 10021, USA

    Carla Boutin-Foster, Nadine McLaughlin, Angela Gray, Anthony Ogedegbe, Anna Rodriguez & Ann Beeder

  2. The East Harlem School, 309 East 103rd Street, New York, NY, 10029, USA

    Ivan Hageman & Courtney Knowlton

Authors
  1. Carla Boutin-Foster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nadine McLaughlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Angela Gray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Anthony Ogedegbe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ivan Hageman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Courtney Knowlton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Anna Rodriguez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Ann Beeder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carla Boutin-Foster.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Boutin-Foster, C., McLaughlin, N., Gray, A. et al. Reducing HIV and AIDS through Prevention (RHAP): A Theoretically Based Approach for Teaching HIV Prevention to Adolescents through an Exploration of Popular Music. J Urban Health 87, 440–451 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-010-9435-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-010-9435-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation