Learning to Live Board Game - Assessment of the Sexual Education Instrument Used by Adolescents.
Vilela, Maria Helena*,1, Torselli, Mauricio1, Vasques, Sandra1, 1 Instituto Kaplan, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
ABSTRACT- From 2000 to 2002 Instituto Kaplan, along with Pfizer Labs and the Government Social Fund for the State of São Paulo (Fundo Social do Governo de Estado de São Paulo), performed an AIDS prevention work that moved 546 students from an Institution called "Casa da Solidariedade". Those adolescents were invited to join the project by workshops and received the game "Learn to Live" as a present. The objective of this project was to disseminate the information about prevention to their friends and family through this educative game. It is a board game - a game that contains challenge cards, questions and presents risky situations which provides information about sexuality, pregnancy, contraceptive methods, and prevention of STD/AIDS. Project Objective: to assess the efficacy of game through the adolescents motivation to play it with their friends and family Methodology: we applied a multiple choice questionnaire on 186 students from 8 to 18 years old, of which 74 (46%) were men and 87 (54%) were women. Main Results: 90.2% used the game at least once and we obtained an usage average of the material of 8.3 times. The place where the game was most played was their own house (89.2%), and there was an average of 5.2 people playing the game, of which 76.6% were friends, 54.5% were brothers and sisters, and 28.1% were parents. "Fun" was the greatest motivation to play the game (65.3%), followed by "The will to learn more about the subjects concerning the game" (53.9%), and "Friends learning about sexuality and AIDS/STD prevention" (34.7%). Conclusion: This game showed to be motivating for both sexes and in all researched ages, proving its efficiency as an instrument that is able to provide fun, education, and facility to disseminate the information to a considerable amount of people. Also, this educational instrument showed to be very family acceptable, and capable of stimulating the communication between parents and children about sexuality, however yet in a discrete way.
Key words: sexual education, board game, adolescence, peer education, STD/Aids