PSI

Research shows that early age of sexual debut puts young people at an increased risk of HIV acquisition. Early sexual debut lengthens the potential period of exposure to HIV, typically results in a higher number of lifetime sexual partners, and increases the risk of unintended pregnancy. Interventions that promote primary or secondary abstinence and delayed sexual debut can reduce an individual's risk of being exposed to HIV.

PSI implemented the Delayed Debut Regional Campaign, a multi-channel intervention that emphasized the benefits of abstinence, promoted the acceptability of romantic relationships without sex and condemned sexual coercion among youth. The campaign, which was informed by formative research conducted in eight sub-Saharan African countries, was ultimately aired in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, the campaign reached 370,000 youth each month in 2005.

Another PSI project, Kenya's mass media Nimechill ("I have chilled or I am abstaining") campaign, conveyed positive messages regarding abstinence to foster youth's ability to refuse sex and delay sexual debut between 2004 and 2005. High exposure to the campaign through multiple channels was associated with increased self-efficacy and intention to abstain from sex — two important determinants of delayed sexual debut.

PSI currently incorporates messages on delayed sexual debut into interventions in eighteen countries in Africa as well as in India, the Dominican Republic, Romania and Russia.

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Health Areas: HIV