Physical Education and Sport Sciences

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Browsing Physical Education and Sport Sciences by Author "Sørensen, Marit"

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    Gender Differences in HIV Related Psychological Variables in a Tanzanian Intervention Using Sport
    (Taylor & Francis, 2015) Sørensen, Marit; Maro, Cyprian N.; Roberts, Glyn C.
    Despite the encouraging reduction in new HIV infections in most parts of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 72% of all new infections worldwide in 2011 [UNAIDS (2012). World AIDS day report. Geneva: Author]. Young women are more likely to be infected than young men. However, the possibilities for doing research on development of strategies and interventions for HIV prevention are not well supported in most Sub-Saharan universities. It is therefore important that we in the developed world support our colleagues in finding ways to develop research environments: In this case, on preventive strategies for HIV in the local culture in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Sport is gaining recognition as an effective means to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and reduce vulnerability. We used an HIV/AIDS education intervention through soccer, using peer coaches, to investigate the efficacy of the intervention and in particular to examine gender differences in changes in HIV-related psychological variables of at-risk youth subgroups participating in the intervention. Participants were at-risk children within a community sport programme. Children attending local schools, and a group of street children from the same communities acted as control groups. The intervention lasted eight weeks. The intervention was successful in that both boys and girls improved their scores on the behavioural intention variables. However, gender differences at pre-test were maintained post-test in that girls continued to score lower than boys. The sport intervention was successful, but girls scored reliably lower on most of the variables under study, especially the variables involving the use of a condom.
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    HIV/AIDS Education in Tanzania: The Experience of At-Risk Children in Poorer Communities
    (Taylor & Francis, 2009) Maro, Cyprian N.; Roberts, Glyn C.; Sørensen, Marit
    This study has investigated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) knowledge, attitudes and sexual at-risk behaviours of youths from disadvantaged communities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Participants were 800 youths aged 12–15 years within three youth subgroups in these poorer communities: those children attending school; children who were not attending school but who were still residing within their communities; and children who were street children (more than 50% of them being orphans). Participants responded to questionnaires. In general, all youths showed low levels of HIV knowledge, experience with condom use and intention to use condoms. They exhibited moderate perceived behaviour control in using condom and positive subjective norms about the use of condoms, the value of sexual abstinence and having an exclusive sexual partner. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant differences between those in-school and those out-of-school with regard to HIV knowledge, intended condom use, subjective norms about condom use and abstinence. Indeed, the in-school children were more at risk for HIV infection, in that they reported the lowest condom experience and perceived behavioural control in condom use. There were systematic gender differences, in that girls scored lower than boys on all variables. The policy of basing HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education within the schools of Tanzania has not been as effective as desired. To be effective in “kicking AIDS out of Africa”, we need to re-evaluate the educational strategies being used.
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    Using Sport to Promote HIV/AIDS Education for At-Risk Youths: An Intervention Using Peer Coaches in Football
    (2009) Maro, Cyprian N.; Roberts, Glyn C.; Sørensen, Marit
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an ongoing AIDS education intervention program (EMIMA) using peers in a sport context. A secondary purpose was to determine whether a mastery-based motivational strategy would enhance the effectiveness of the peer coaches. A quasi field experimental study was employed in which at-risk children in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania (N=764) were recruited (average age=13.6 years) and were randomly grouped into two treatment groups and two control groups. The treatment groups were peer coaches conducting the AIDS education to the children within sport, one with mastery coaching strategies and one without. The two control groups were in-school children, who received traditional AIDS education, and out-of-school children, who received no education at all. The intervention lasted for 8 weeks. The results indicated that the intervention using peers in sport was more effective in transmitting HIV prevention knowledge, cognitions and perceived behaviors than the control groups. The mastery-based motivational strategies were effective in influencing some of the variables. Contrary to expectation, the school-based HIV education was no more effective than the informal education obtained by the out-of-school children. The use of peer coaches within the EMIMA program was reliably the most effective means for HIV/AIDS education for these at-risk children.