MODEL FOR USING HIP-HOP MUSIC FOR SMALL-GROUP HIV AIDS PREVENTION COUNSELING WITH AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG-ADULTS/

Currently little attention has been directed, with the exception of pe er education efforts, to constructively develop new and innovative way s to promote HIV/AIDS primary prevention among African American (AA) a dolescents and young adults. With this in mind, the aim of this concep tual effort is to present a HIV/AIDS preventive counseling protocol de veloped for use with AA young adults that makes use of hip-hop music, a form of music popularized by young AAs. The author contend that an i ncreased understanding of the relationships that many AA young adults have with hip-hop music may be used by disease prevention personnel to educate these populations about protective factors for HIV. Making us e of hip-hop music is one strategy for integrating counseling in preve ntion and health maintenance. The overall implications of using hip-ho p music in health promotion are unlimited. First, this method makes us e of cultural relevant materials to address the educational and health needs of the target community. Second, it is grounded in an approach that serves to stimulate cooperative learning based on peer developed content. Moreover, the use of this medium can be applied to other heal th promotion activities such as violence/harm reduction and substance abuse prevention, upon reviews of songs for appropriate content. The a uthors contend that such an approach holds heuristic value in dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention among AA young adults. Additional testing of the intervention is warranted in the refinement of this innovative int ervention. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.