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AIDS Care: Psychological and Sociomedical Aspects of AIDS/HIV Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/caic20

Young people, HIV/AIDS and social research P. Aggleton

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Director, Health and Education Research Unit, Goldsmiths' College , University of London , Published online: 25 Sep 2007.

To cite this article: P. Aggleton (1992) Young people, HIV/AIDS and social research, AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV, 4:3, 243-244, DOI: 10.1080/09540129208253096 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540129208253096

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AIDS CARE,VOL.4, NO. 3,1992

EDITORIAL

Young people, HIWAIDS and social research P. AGGLETON

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Director, Health and Education Research Unit, Goldsmiths’ College, University of London

There has been a tendency in much writing about young people and HIV disease to assume that all young people are the same-that all face similar risks, and that all are equally unknowledgeable, irresponsible and immature. Numerous research papers have their origins in these kinds of assumptions which determine the kinds of questions asked, the types of data collected and the modes of analysis employed. The starting point for much enquiry thereby continues to be the ‘thrills, pills and spills’ theory of adolescence-an analytic framework which denies the social specificity of young people’s responses, culturally, sexually, stylistically and in relation to drug-related risk. When imported into the field of HIVIAIDS social research, this framework makes it legitimate not to analyse the ways in which different groups of young people have responded to the epidemic. It offers little therefore to teachers, youth workers, health educators and health promoters who want to focus their interventions so as to meet the needs of specific groups of young people in particular contexts. Fortunately the last couple of years have seen a reaction against this earlier kind of work, and research is now beginning to identify the health promotion needs of young women and young men, young Black people and young whites, young heterosexuals and young lesbians and young gay men, young able bodied people and young disabled people. Not surprisingly, the first findings to emerge from this alternative research paradigm paint a very different picture of young people and their needs. For a start, risk behaviour is seen less as an individual attribute and more of a social phenomenon. Young women in heterosexual relationships, for example, may be prevented from practising safer sex by patriarchal ideologies influencing their partner’s expectations and desires-an issue explored in Holland et al.’s analysis of fidings from the Women, Risk and AIDS Project. Similarly, it would appear from the research reported on by Davies et al. that the risk-related behaviour of younger gay men may be as much influenced by generational considerations as those pertaining to sexuality. Recent research by Gold et al. points to the justifications young heterosexuals use in accounting for the circumstances in which they have unprotected sex. All of these factors need to be taken into account when developing appropriate educational interventions. Secondly, there has been a move towards identifying more clearly the health promotion implications of research findings-be these from studies of reported behaviour and its influences, or from reviews of the relevant literature. The papers by Abrams et al. and Romer & Hornik do just this, suggesting concrete options for those whose responsibility it is to work with young people on HIV-related issues. The challenge in the months ahead lies in evaluating what follows when such theoretically informed practice takes place. ~

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Address for correspondence: Dr P. Aggleton, Director of the Health and Education Research Unit, Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK.

244 P. AGGLETON

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It has been my pleasure to edit this special section of AIDS Care which focuses on young people and HIVIAIDS social research. While it is not possible in the space available to do credit to all of the more innovative work that is underway, it is possible to offer a taster of what the future may have in store as social researchers engage more critically and more creatively with some of the important questions that exist in this field.

AIDS and social research.

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