The development and evaluation of an intervention programme for adolescents living with HIV/AIDS in Malaysia

Abstract

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Malaysia has found that adolescents living with HIV/ AIDS face several emotional, behavioural and social problems. Based on past literature, the result of these issues has led to a lower well-being in these aspects. Given the lack of studies investigating the issues facing adolescents living with HIV/ AIDS in a Malaysian setting, the present study sought to fill this gap in research by carrying out three main studies that relate to the three main objectives of the study: Study 1: identifies the issues facing adolescents living with HIV/AIDS, Study 2: develops an intervention programme for adolescents living with HIV/ AIDS and Study 3: evaluates the developed intervention programme for adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. These three studies employed a participatory action research approach (Kloos, 2000). The main participants are 15 Malaysian adolescents with living HIV/ AIDS from shelter homes; the personnel of the shelter homes comprising the programme coordinators, staff and volunteers of the shelter homes, recruited via purposive sampling. The identified issues facing adolescents with HIV were used as bases in ascertaining the domains to be included in a culturally-tailored wellness intervention programme designed to suit the Malaysian population of adolescents with HIV. This intervention programme was developed based on the identified issues facing adolescents living with HIV/AIDS and a review ofliterature of intervention prorammes aimed at improving the well-being of adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. This developed and adapted wellness intervention programme was named 'Be Your BEST' (Behavioural, Emotional, Social, Teamwork) and it comprises 3 main modules (Emotional Well-Being Module- Session 1 to 4, Behavioural Well-Being Module- Session 5 to 7, Social Well-Being Module- Sesion 8 to 10) were mainly aimed at increasing the emotional, behavioural and social well-being of the adolescents. The present study then evaluated the effectiveness of the developed wellness intervention programme through a participatory action research (PAR) approach. This study used a mixed-method approach with qualitative (focus group discussions) and quantitative ( experimental design) methods. The effectiveness of the intervention programme was assesses via the use of three measures, namely the Baron Emotional Quotient Inventory (Baron EQ-i Youth Version) (Bar-On & Parker, 2000), the Child Behaviour Checklist Youth Self-Report Form (YSR) (Achenbach, 2001) and the developed and validated scale in the present study, the Content Knowledge of a Wellness Intervention Programme Instrument. Post-intervention results revealed that the developed and adapted wellness intervention programme (Be Your BEST programme) yieled promising results with a 60% decrease in overall behavioural problems and a 100 % increase in overall emotional and social well-being among the participants. The highest amount of increase in emotional and social well-being was for the subscales Interpersonal Scale and Stress Management Scale (100% each). This is followed by Intrapersonal Scale, Adaptability Scale and the General Mood Scale (93.33% each) while the highest amount of decrease was the subscales Anxious/depressed subscale (73.33%) and Aggressive behaviour (73.33%), followed by Attention problems (66.67%) and a 60% reduction were for the subscales Withdrawn/depressed, Thought Problems and Other Problems. The smallest reduction among the subscales was for Somatic Complaints, Social Problems and Rule-breaking behaviour (53.33% each). It is hoped that the developed intervention programme will be able to be replicated and implemented in various organization across the nation to help increase the well-being of other adolescents living with HIV/AIDS.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, intervention programme, participatory action research, wellbeing