Adolescent Risk-perception Cognition and Self-assessment in Relation to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: The Case of Some Selected Schools in Zomba, Malawi

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.