The Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ was awarded a $434,800 National Institutes of Health grant that will allow researchers there to develop a game using life-size avatars and real-life scenarios to promote sexual abstinence among Latina middle schoolers.<\/p>\n
Anne Norris, a Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ nursing professor, and Charles Hughes, a Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ computer science professor, will work together with Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s Institute for Simulation & Training during the next two years on the project.<\/p>\n
The game is intended to be played in after-school and youth outreach programs run by trained teachers and counselors. It will be designed to improve girls\u2019 skills in responding to peer pressure to engage in sexual behavior.<\/p>\n
To develop the game characters, Norris and her team are collecting data from focus groups of Latina students participating in the city of Orlando After-School All-Stars program based at Stonewall Jackson Middle School. In April, two groups of girls each came to Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ twice to participate in games and other activities supervised by Jeff Wirth, director of the Interactive Performance Lab at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s Institute for Simulation & Training.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ultimate goal is to reduce pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease among the young Latina population,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
After the game is developed, it will be tested on a small group of Latina girls. Their progress will be studied three, six and nine months after they start playing the game.<\/p>\n
If the game is successful for the Latina girls, Norris plans to develop a similar game for boys and girls of other ethnicities.<\/p>\n