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Very Young Adolescents: A Neglected but Critical Group
A significant proportion of young people become sexually active before the age of 15, and half of all new cases of HIV are among young people between ages 15-24. Intervening during early adolescence can shape attitudes and behaviours as they are being formed, rather than during later adolescence, when they are already established. Fortunately, younger adolescents, even those in precarious circumstances, tend to be resilient and flexible. Often much can be done to remedy their situations before the architecture of their later life becomes set.
Early adolescence – a period when gender attitudes and behaviours are being formed – provides an opportune time to positively influence choices and lifestyles that will last into adulthood. But, while young children may be reached by immunization or school registration initiatives, and older adolescents may be targeted for peer education or youth centre activities, very young adolescents – from age 10 to 14 – often fall through the programme and policy cracks.
Dramatic physiological, social, and emotional changes occur during these years. Girls move from being clearly children at age 10 to being perceived, in some societies, as young women ready for sexual relations, marriage and childbearing by age 14. In this same time period, many boys grow up quickly as well. By age 14, they may be asked to help support their families or possibly serve in the military.
Some of the changes that occur during pre- and early adolescence include: solidification of gender role identification and attitudes, an increase in sensation-seeking and sexual arousal, a need for greater privacy, the development of abstract thinking skills and a higher susceptibility to peer pressure, as well as the physical changes that accompany puberty. Menarch has profound social significance for girls in many cultures.
Working with younger adolescents could constitute an important strategy to decrease infections – evidence indicates that if age of sexual initiation is delayed, HIV preventive behaviours are more likely to be adopted. The majority of young adolescents are not infected, and to ensure that they remain so, it is critical that they have access to culturally appropriate, gender-sensitive and age-specific HIV preventive interventions.
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