Peer Education Programs: Process as Power

Background: Student groups are prone to drug abuse. The prevalence of drugs in the past year among high school students in Surabaya, Indonesia occupies the highest provincial capital (9.4%). The purpose of this study analyzed the relationship between knowledge about drugs, attitudes about peer education, gender, class, and students’ intention to participate in peer education programs in HEY (Health Educator for Youth) activities.Design and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with student participants (12-18 years) in six high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia (n=167). This study used an online survey to assess knowledge of drugs and students’ attitudes about HEY peer education activities.Results: More than half of the students have insufficient knowledge about drugs and have negative attitudes about peer education in HEY activities. This study also showed that students’ intention to participate in peer education was not influenced by the level of knowledge, student attitudes, and gender. The results of statistical tests showed that there was a relationship between class and student participation in peer education activities. This showed that the student’s factor regarding participation in peer education was a class category where the lower class is more motivated to participate.Conclusion: Most students have less knowledge about drugs and a negative attitude about peer education. However, the intention to participate in peer education activities is more thus it is necessary to improve the quality of peer educators through activities that are performed regularly by various relevant stakeholders.Significance for public healthDrug abuse among high school students has reached an increasingly concerning number. This study aims to discover how well students’ knowledge regarding to drugs and their attitudes towards peer education activities in order to prevent drug abuse. Findings of the research indicate that many students' knowledge remain lacking and students' attitudes about peer education remain negative. Good knowledge about drugs is very important so that students do not fall into drug abuse. One of the factors related to students' intention to participate in peer education is class; students at lower-level classes had more free time to take part in peer education. Students who have the intention to participate in more peer education so that peer educator quality improvement and support from schools and related stakeholders are needed to create conditions for peer education that can work optimally in order to prevent drug abuse.

Past efforts to address endemic rates of sexually transmissible infections amongst young Aboriginal people living in remote/very remote Australian communities have had limited success. Peer education has been used in youth sexual health promotion but has received limited evaluation and has not been tested in remote Aboriginal settings. The Young Deadly Free youth peer education programme trained Aboriginal young people in 15 remote/very remote communities as peer educators to deliver sexual health education to other young people. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the project team and regional coordinators to understand the barriers and enablers to implementing peer education in remote communities. Programme credibility, the offer of financial gratuities, and the recruitment of peer educators with prior sexual health knowledge and/or group facilitation experience were identified as programme enablers. Implementation challenges included programme rigidity, cultural sensitivities, and retention and expectations of peer educators. Seven implications for policy and practice are identified to increase the efficacy and long term-impacts of youth peer education. Peer education for youth sexual health promotion in remote communities can be effective if young peer educators are supported appropriately and the peer education programme is part of a comprehensive sexual health promotion strategy.

Peer education programs encompass a variety of health-related topics; however, it is unclear what difficulties peer educators encounter when putting such health promotion initiatives into practice in institutions of higher learning. The objectives of this review are therefore to explore the challenges that peer educators face in the implementation of health promotion activities at the institutions of higher learning and to give recommendations on how to enhance the peer education program to better prepare peer educators for their role and to better prepare them for any upcoming obstacles. This qualitative study used a non-empirical research design, analysing primary research papers and grey literature using a systematic review technique. The study's time frame was limited to 2013-2023, and non-sequential preference adoption was taken into account. The conclusions of this study, which relied on the reviews of standard and fundamental research papers on this topic, were made credible by employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and the Critical Appraisal Skill Programme. Peer education program at institutions of higher learning proved to have a positive impact on the health and well-being of students however the peer educators encounter some challenges when executing their duties such as little knowledge and training on some health topics, lack of interest on some health topics, lack of compensation and lack of support among others. Peer education, which is believed to be a useful technique in encouraging students to adopt healthy behaviours, is an interpersonal endeavour that is influenced by the environments, institutional backdrop, key individuals, and the participants' attitudes and aspirations.

Despite advances in understanding the structural contexts in which drug use occurs and shifts beyond the individual-level focus of adult education theory, peer education models remain wedded to questions of individual behaviour. Our analysis examines the structural context of peer education and its implications for peer training. People who inject drugs (PWID) were invited to participate in a series of three focus group discussions in order to develop peer education messages and strategies. These were then trialled by participants within their networks and their experiences discussed in subsequent focus groups. The influence of structural factors (such as the policing of public space) on participants' peer education attempts were identified and discussed. We propose that despite the damaging impact of structural factors on the lives of PWID, they can in turn be used by peer educators to develop innovative interventions designed to increase resilience and reduce internalized stigma. Peer education programmes need sufficient flexibility and resources to allow for the negotiation of participants' immediate needs and for collaborative learning between PWID and peer educators. This would require an informed and responsive funder-a challenge to the current orthodoxy wherein peer education is increasingly delivered in formats predetermined by the funder.

The two-fold purpose of this study was to explore the peer education experiences of registered nurses and solutions for developing peer education as an effective method of adult learning. Eleven designated peer nurse teachers and 13 peer nurse learners were asked to complete a questionnaire. Three peer nurse teachers and three peer nurse learners were further interviewed in focus groups. The metathemes of peer role conflict, organizational stress, and the timing of new role integration were identified. The study found nurses believed that to have a successful peer education program, the scope of the peer education program and the peer roles should be clarified, peer time should be available and accessible, positive motivational techniques (including a just peer selection process) should be present, and other resources should be provided.

This paper examined the experiences of people with spinal cord injury and related neurological conditions (collectively referred to as SCI) who participated in a peer education program in Fiji and explored their perceptions of its impact on their community participation.The study used an exploratory qualitative design, involving nine people with SCI. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews, six months after the initial peer education program delivered by the first author and another Australian wheelchair user. Three themes described participants’ experiences and perceptions of the peer education program. The world closes down illustrated the way that physical environments and community attitudes were unsupportive of participants’ fulfilling life roles. Seeing the possibilities described the participants’ experiences of learning from peers and beginning to imagine new possibilities. The final theme, Opening up the world, identified their perception of the peer education program’s impact, as their worlds opened up, and they resumed previously abandoned responsibilities and activities. Participants valued contact with peer educators as much as they did the content taught. Their greater sense of confidence, communication skills and wheelchair use contributed to participants’ increased sense of community participation.

Adolescent pregnancies that occur in schools remain a major public concern in Rwanda. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) school based programs are less effective and discussing sexual health with adolescents is considered as taboo in Rwandan societies. Yet, adolescents still seek information about SRHR from their peers and research shows that peers are often incorrectly informed about SRHR topics. One of the effective strategies to reduce adolescent pregnancies in secondary schools is equipping adolescents with accurate and reliable knowledge. In 2019, we conducted our first network event with different stakeholders. The stakeholders included: school directors, head teachers, biology teachers, local political delegates, religious people among others to help gain insights into SRHR. A survey was conducted and administered to in-school adolescents in Kirehe district (S3 - S6 level, n=563) with the aim of examining adolescents' level of knowledge and attitudes regarding SRHR. In addition, six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to obtain a deeper understanding of the SRHR needs and the possible contributions and content of a peer -to- peer education program (PEP). The lessons learned included: a) engaging parents in the network event and development of PEP; b) constant communication utilizing the different social media platforms, c) enhanced collaboration between the project implementers and stakeholders a facet of bottom-up approaches to expedite this project; and d) the project should have better anticipated on possible and unforeseen external barriers. Implementing a PEP in Kirehe secondary schools resulted in substantive changes such as positively transforming peer educators (PEs) and the elimination of teenage pregnancies in the selected schools. Overall, the number of PEs was not adequate to cover the number of students and anti-bullying training should have been provided to all students before the project implementation.

Background: Peer-education programmes aim to bring about attitudinal and behavioural changes in their target audience. In the South African educational context, peer education is a favoured approach in dealing with issues such as HIV and AIDS, sexual decision-making and substance misuse. Given the reliance on peer-education programmes in the educational system, it is important to establish how well they are working. This study aims to assess the effect of an extensive, structured, time-limited, curriculum-based, peer-led educational programme on first-year high school learners in public schools in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Method: The curriculum called ‘Listen Up’ addresses issues such as supporting peers, sexual decision-making, healthy relationships, HIV risk, alcohol misuse and unwanted pregnancy in seven structured sessions. The programme targeted adolescents in Grade 8 growing up in what are considered to be risky environments in public schools in the Western Cape during 2012 and 2013. The intervention was evaluated based on 10 scales sourced from published literature related to the outcome indicators of future orientation, sensation-seeking, self-efficacy in sexual relations, HIV transmission knowledge, HIV prevention knowledge, HIV attitudes, sexual attitudes, decision-making, healthy relationships and social support. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographic and community characteristics and analyses of variance were used to detect differences between groups. The surveys were administered to a total of 7709 learners across three waves of the study in 27 peer intervention schools and eight control schools. Results: Immediately post intervention, statistically significant differences were noted for the intervention schools when compared to their baseline levels on measures of future orientation, self-efficacy in sexual relations, knowledge regarding HIV transmission, knowledge regarding HIV prevention and knowledge in terms of healthy relationships. Comparing baseline values with results collected between five and seven months post intervention, statistically significant results were noted for self-efficacy in sexual relations and knowledge regarding HIV transmission. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that peer-education can improve adolescents’ self-efficacy in sexual relations as well as knowledge regarding the transmission of HIV and therefore can contribute to the prevention of HIV transmission among adolescents.

Peer education programs in corrections: curriculum, implementation, and nursing interventions.

A Peer Education Program: Delivering Highly Reliable Sexual Health Promotion Messages in Schools

Prevalence of primary tuberculosis among nomadic Fulani population and their cattle herds in Kano, Nigeria

Starting a new peer education program in learning assistance requires attention to critical program components. What steps need to be taken, and what resources are available?

The Community Service Program aims to form a trained peer counselor by providing knowledge and skills to peer counselors on adolescent reproductive health and ways to deal with the problem. Design to achieve these goals by training some students to become peer counselors about reproductive health. The main material for this training is Adolescent Reproductive Health and the ways to overcome the problem, as well as how to become a peer counselor. The program target is a member of the OSIS SMK PGRI 1 Ponorogo. The training is conducted 1 day and mentoring is carried out 1 day. The number of students trained by 20 students as peer counselors. The training results showed 95% of students increased significantly the reproductive health knowledge score. And 100% of students are able to act as a peer educator effectively. The peer educator program should be an extra-curricular activity in all schools both junior and senior high school to prevent unhealthy sexual behavior in adolescents.

The impact of an epilepsy peer education program on knowledge, attitudes, and first aid approaches: A quasi-experimental design.

Personal hygiene during menstruation is an important aspect of adolescent girls' reproductive health. Inadequate hygiene practices risk increasing infections and long-term health problems. This study aims to evaluate the effect of peer education on menstrual hygiene practices in adolescent girls. A literature review approach with the PRISMA method and thematic analysis was used to review articles published between 2019 and 2024. Of the 577 articles found, 13 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Results showed that peer education was effective in increasing knowledge, awareness and practice of menstrual hygiene, and reducing taboos among adolescents. The program also improved communication between adolescents and created a supportive learning environment. Technology, such as audio-dramas, can increase the effectiveness of peer education, especially for adolescents with special needs. Integration of peer education with health professional approaches provides more optimal results. This systematic review offers suggestions for combining peer education programs with government policy support in the formal education system, which aims to increase adolescents' awareness and practices related to reproductive health care more inclusively.Keywords:Adolescents, Menstruation, Peer Education, Personal hygiene. Pengaruh Pendidikan Sebaya terhadap Praktik Higiene Pribadi Menstruasi pada Remaja Putri: Tinjauan Pustaka SistematisPersonal hygiene selama menstruasi merupakan aspek penting dalam kesehatan reproduksi remaja putri. Praktik kebersihan yang tidak memadai berisiko meningkatkan infeksi dan masalah kesehatan jangka panjang. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi pengaruh peer education terhadap praktik kebersihan menstruasi pada remaja putri. Pendekatan literatur review dengan metode PRISMA dan analisis tematik digunakan untuk meninjau artikel yang diterbitkan antara 2019 hingga 2024. Dari 577 artikel yang ditemukan, 13 artikel terpilih berdasarkan kriteria inklusi. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa peer education efektif dalam meningkatkan pengetahuan, kesadaran, dan praktik kebersihan menstruasi, serta mengurangi tabu di kalangan remaja. Program ini juga meningkatkan komunikasi antar remaja dan menciptakan lingkungan belajar yang mendukung. Teknologi, seperti audio-drama, dapat meningkatkan efektivitas peer education, khususnya untuk remaja dengan kebutuhan khusus. Integrasi peer education dengan pendekatan profesional kesehatan memberikan hasil yang lebih optimal. Tinjauan sistematis ini menawarkan saran untuk menggabungkan program peer education dengan dukungan kebijakan pemerintah dalam sistem pendidikan formal, yang bertujuan meningkatkan kesadaran dan praktik remaja terkait pemeliharaan kesehatan reproduksi lebih inklusif.Kata Kunci:Remaja, Menstruasi, Pendidikan Sebaya, Praktik Higiene Pribadi.