A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / The KwaSomkhele Reserve, the rural area of Mtubatuba has had a noticeable increase of adolescents who got infected with HI-Virus in the area in recent years. Hence, the researcher became interested to investigate the conditions leading to increased HIV infections amongst adolescents. The reasons for the continued increase of HIV infections regardless of massive campaigns that were conducted in their area were investigated. To give meaning to the objectives of the study, the sampling of 200 adolescents was targeted as participants in the initial stages of the research which included both school children and out of school adolescents. Availability sampling was chosen for this study. It is a method of choosing subjects who are available to find. The primary advantage of this method is that it is easy to carry out, relatively to other methods. Availability sampling is a non-probability sampling. The subjects in the non-probability sampling are also selected conveniently for the ease of data and it entails lower costs (Othman et al, 2013:133). However, due to the challenges that were experienced with the Department of Education in terms of the protocols to be followed, only 100 out of school youth as participants were interviewed. It was discovered that the adolescents of KwaSomkhele were aware of HIV/AIDS through HIV/AIDS programs that had been conducted by different government departments in their area, but most of them chose to ignore the information given to them. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made based on the objectives of the study and theories that were used. The researcher has learnt that adolescents are the most vulnerable group in our society because they are faced with the critical transition of moving from puberty stage to adulthood. That transition sometimes forced them to take uninformed decisions and engaged in reckless and risky behaviors which could sometimes lead some of them to be infected by HI-Virus. As a solution to that, the researcher suggests the involvement of stakeholders in providing the necessary support and promoting good and acceptable behaviors by adolescents.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:29:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MOACIR WUO tese.pdf: 1984042 bytes, checksum: b260ef1f6e01df686f6fc85bb6e26c5e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-04-09 / This study aimed to explore the contextualizations and Social Representation of adolescents of High School about AIDS and Program of AIDS Prevention in schools. 440 High School s students of the 1st and the 3rd grades of 10 towns of S?o Paulo state participated in this study. A questionnaire with familiar and social contexts dimensions, with opened and closed questions, situation of risk and Social Representation about AIDS and Program of AIDS Prevention in Schools were used. The answers were analyzed by the Contents Analysis technique. At the results of the adolescents perceptions, male students enjoy freedom in leisure, work routine and study, relationship with friends, money availability, alcohol consumption and sexual experiences more than the female students. All of them presented less care about AIDS. They admitted having sexual intercourse with no commitments. 31% indicated that they have had sexual intercourse and female students presented more sexual activity than male students. 58% indicated that they have used condom, with more rejection among the female students. The female students of the 1st grade indicated more prematurity in the beginning of sexual life and alcohol consumption. On the Social Representations about AIDS, biological-medicalized aspects is pointed out with low references of prevention, distortions of prevention and transmission knowledge. The 3rd grade manifested more dissatisfaction and a lack of interactivity in the Prevention s Program. The adolescents reproduce the Social Representations of Teachers about AIDS via activities of prevention in the schools. / Este estudo objetivou explorar as contextualiza??es e Representa??es Sociais de adolescentes do Ensino M?dio sobre a AIDS e Programas de Preven??o ? AIDS nas Escolas. Foram sujeitos 440 alunos de 1? e 3? s?ries do Ensino M?dio de 10 Munic?pios do Estado de S?o Paulo. Utilizou-se de question?rio com quest?es abertas e fechadas com dimens?es do contexto familiar e social, situa??o de risco e Representa??es Sociais sobre a AIDS e Programas de Preven??o ? AIDS nas Escolas. As respostas foram analisadas pela t?cnica de An?lise de Conte?do. Nos resultados das percep??es dos adolescentes, alunos desfrutam maiores liberdades no lazer, rotina de trabalho e estudos, rela??es com amigos, disponibilidade de dinheiro, consumo de ?lcool e experi?ncias sexuais que alunas. Todos apresentaram poucas preocupa??es com a AIDS, admitem ter rela??es sexuais sem compromissos, 31% indicaram ter tido rela??es sexuais, alunas apresentaram mais atividade sexual que os alunos, 58% indicaram ter usado camisinha com maiores rejei??es entre as alunas. Alunas da 1? indicaram maior precocidade no in?cio da vida sexual e consumo ?lcool. Nas Representa??es Sociais sobre AIDS, destacam-se aspectos biol?gicos medicalizados com baixas refer?ncias ? preven??o, distor??es nos conhecimentos sobre transmiss?o e preven??o. A 3? s?rie manifestou maiores insatisfa??es e falta de interatividade nos Programas de Preven??o. Os adolescentes reproduzem as Representa??es Sociais de Professores sobre AIDS via atividades de preven??o nas escolas.