ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a period of development that can lead to risk behaviors including HIV/AIDS, other sexually-transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy. There is evidence that youth in both developed and developing countries participate in sexual-risk behaviors. Peer education programs have been developed and implemented to prevent the consequences of adolescent sexual risk behaviors by providing knowledge and changing adolescent intentions and behaviors. Although the programs differ in length and content, there are similarities among the programs. These similarities include the preparation of teens as educators, content focused on such areas as prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases such as HIV, and program evaluation. Peer education consists of interventions by individuals to a cohort group who share similar to the educators. The assumption of peer education programs is that individuals are more likely to make changes in their attitudes and behaviors if they believe the person providing
1Clinical Associate Professor, Rutgers, The State University of NJ College of Nursing, 180 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102; Email: gmahat@rutgers.edu 2Associate Professor, Rutgers, The State University of NJ, College of Nursing, 180 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102; Email: scoloven@rutgers.edu *Corresponding author List of abbreviations after the text.
