Abstract:
Most researchers, on adolescent reproductive health and associated vulnerability to contracting
Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome HIV/AIDS, have
explicitly highlighted the paradoxical misfi t between adolescent knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission
dynamics and positive change in behaviour. Popular explanation focuses more on socio-cultural
factors such as male chauvinism, peer infl uence and pressure, and stoicism towards death in most
African cultures. An alternative explanation derived from psycho-social theory is that, as a result of
egocentrism and the crisis at adolescence, the period is imbued with confounded perception of risk to
the pandemic. This alternative is tested using survey data from adolescent students from some selected
schools in southern Malawi. Results show that respondents are typified by adolescent egocentrism. This
is consistent with the conception of adolescence as a period of crisis. These results are discussed within
the larger context of the applicability of psychodynamic theory to the AIDS pandemic.
