Jessica Prawica
Health Behavior
Journal #2
2/27/15
1.Describe the population the RHAP program is designed to serve by answering the
following: What is their age? Where do they live? How prevalent is sexual activity
among this group? What percentage of these adolescents use a condom when sexually
active?
The RHAP program is designed to serve middle school students who live in East
Harlem, New York. The number of teens and adolescents who are sexually active and
who engage in unprotected sexual activity is high. Nearly one half of public high school
teenagers in New York City reported being sexually active. Out of these teenagers, only
63% reported that used a condom.
2. Why did the creators of RHAP decide to use Hip Hop and Rap music as a vehicle for
exploring attitudes and habits regarding sex among this population?
The creators of RHAP decided to use music as a way to explore the attitudes and
habits regarding sex among adolescents because it can serve as an informal learning tool.
Adolescents listen to about 3-4 hours of music daily, which means music can be a great
opportunity for educational purposes. The genre of music that was chosen to be used by
the creators of RHAP was Hip-Hop/Rap because it is the most common genre of music
listened to by urban Black and Latino youth.
3. The authors summarize some other research that has explored the relationship between
listening to sexually-explicit, violent and/or degrading lyrics and the behavior of the
adolescent listener. What did they learn? Why do you think this relationship exists? What
does this relationship imply?
The authors learned a lot of things based on the research they found that has
explored the relationship between listening to sexually explicit lyrics and the behavior of
the adolescent listener. They found a study by the Kaiser Foundation that was done on
students between grades 7th-12th, which showed that 65% of them listened to rap music.
When the looked at the race and ethnicity, it showed 60% were Caucasian youth, 70%
were Latino youth, and 80% were Black youth. This shows that rap is very frequently
listened too. About 40% of music listened by early adolescents has been found to contain
sexually explicit content. Having sexually explicit music has been linked to sexual
behaviors. Another thing they found was that exposure to music containing sexual
content has been linked to initiation of intercourse and progression of more advanced
levels of sexual activity. I think this relationship exists because rap contains a lot of
explicit sexual content and it is very popular music. If adolescents are exposed to
listening to this kind of music, they believe that if rappers can sing about it, they think
they are able to do it. By listening to this kind of music, it makes adolescents more
inclined in participating in these kinds of behaviors.
4. Using the constructs of Social Cognitive Theory, the authors identify themes and
messages in many hip-hop and rap songs. What were they? Specifically, consider the
themes/messages using: a. Expectations – the anticipated outcomes of a behavior. Some of the music
lyrics that praise sex may be highlighting unrealistic positive outcomes of sexual
promiscuity such as enhanced popularity and fame.
b. Role modeling- provides visual displays of young, attractive, popular artists
who are often viewed as role models. This may influence beliefs about norms and
expectations about engaging in sexual intercourse.
c. Self-efficacy- describes the confidence to achieve a goal. The lyrics in rap
music and the artists in the accompanying videos most often give the impression of being
in control or having an exaggerated sense of self-efficiency.
d. Rewards- factors that will either increase or decrease the likelihood of the
behavior.
5. To pilot-test the intervention, the creators of RHAP facilitated classroom sessions in
which students worked in small groups to examine the lyrics of popular songs. Why do
you think it is important to include community members in the design of health
promotion intervention? How does language play a role in designing interventions?
I think it is important to include community members in the design of health
promotion intervention because a community should work together to promote health and
to get every one involved. If the community gets involved it spreads the word about how
serious the matter is. I think language is very important when it comes to designing
interventions because the way you explain it is how people will interpret it.
6. In the creation and implementation of the final program, the decision was made to
incorporate the RHAP discussions into a larger curriculum that focused on positive health
habits in general. It also incorporated having the students research HIV and make
presentations on what they learned. One of the sessions was held at the medical center
(and not the school) and parents were invited to attend. Why do you think the program
was expanded to include all of these other elements? Do you think the addition of these
other elements made the program more effective? Why or why not?
I think the program was expanded to include all of these other elements because
they wanted the adolescents as well as their parents to realize how truly important it is to
prevent HIV/AIDS. By having the students do research and presentations it should have
brought their awareness to all the consequences that can occur if they are not safe when
being sexually active. I feel that it was a good idea to have the parents their because that
would make the parents more knowledge about HIV/AIDS and they would keep
reinforcing it to their children. I think the addition of these other elements made the
program more effective because it brought about a better awareness to not only the
students but their parents as well.
7. Did the RHAP program change the sexual behavior of the students? Were they less
likely to engage in sex, particularly risky sex, after the program? Is RHAP more effective
than other programs designed to reduce the risk of HIV and AIDS among adolescents?
The RHAP program unfortunately didn’t change the sexual behavior of the
students, but it made the students more aware of the content of the lyrics of music. It is
not known if the students are less likely to engage in sex, particularly risky sex after this
program. I think the RHAP program is more effective than other programs designed to
reduce the risk of HIV and AIDS among adolescents because it address an important
health issue while linking it to something many adolescents are aware of such as rap
music. It gives them a better understanding of how important it is to be safe when
engaging in sexual behaviors.
8. This article demonstrates adapting interventions to different populations based on an
element of culture (music). How might other elements of culture impact health promotion
interventions? (Elements can include: religion, art, films and television, other performing
arts, beliefs about illness, and family structure, to name a few)
The article demonstrates adapting interventions to different populations based on
an element of culture. There are some other elements of culture that impact health
promotion interventions such as films and shows and family structure. There are many
films and shows that should not be aired because they basically promote the wrong
things. For example, Teen Mom is an awful show to air because it almost implies its fine
to get pregnant since other girls are doing it. These girls are getting paid so much money
just to be aired on TV for being a teen mom. Family structure is another important
element because the way you raise your children is usually how they will act. If you do
not educate your children on health topics then they will never know right from wrong.
For example, if parents do educate here children about safe sex then they will be unaware
of all the consequences that can happen.