Sexual Health and HIV Prevention for Youth: A Survey of School Counselors’ Beliefs, Attitudes, and Professional Behaviors

Abstract

Through an exploratory descriptive study, we examined school counselors’ attitudes and beliefs about their role in HIV prevention, and their professional behaviors in addressing HIV in their schools. Participants reported strong support of youth’s sexual health rights, moderate agreement with school counselors’ role in HIV prevention, moderate to high comfort addressing HIV, and low engagement in HIV prevention behaviors. We discuss implications for school counselor training, supervision, and advocacy.