Sexuality and AIDS prevention among adolescents from low-income communities in Recife, Brazil

The aim of this study, which was conducted by Casa de Passagem (Passage House), an NGO, was to understand how low-income female adolescents perceive their sexuality and to determine the factors that increase their vulnerability to STDs and HIV infection in order to develop appropriate prevention strategies. The study consisted of peer interviews with 255 girls aged 13-19, 199 of whom were drawn from 17 public schools in low-income neighborhoods, and 55 of whom were drawn from public spaces which were points of prostitution. The study finds that adolescent girls are at risk because of lack of information, unprotected sexual intercourse, inconsistent condom use, and the short duration of their relationships (which indicates multiple partners). Girls are divided in their attitudes toward sexual mores, a division which reflects cultural changes in Brazil, such as increased emphasis on sexuality in mass media where consumer products are eroticized and soap operas portray sexual relations among young people. Amidst these changes, pressure on young girls to maintain virginity, which symbolizes the authority of the father and the honor of the family, continues. The latter factor affects young women"s communication patterns, information, and health-seeking behaviors; protective behaviors are not congruent with the need to preserve the outward appearance of virginity. Hence, there is a need to channel more information to adolescent girls: television should be used to provide information, but not through negative, fear-based campaigns; free condoms should be distributed to low-income adolescents; and media campaigns should be supplemented with face-to-face peer education and materials produced by adolescents themselves (to ensure their appropriateness) that suggest different ways of negotiating condom use and that address restrictive sociocultural norms. Further, AIDS prevention efforts should build on the autonomy experienced by adolescent girls in their relationships (particularly during the early stages) to foster their abilities to negotiate safer sex. Prevention efforts should also be developed within the context of other issues such as drug use, abortion, child prostitution, sexual abuse, and violence, and should address how sociocultural norms, particularly those surrounding virginity, inhibit preventive behavior.