Settings & Audiences for Peer Education

Parents' primary objective is commonly to instill in their children norms that will enable them to lead healthy, happy and successful lives. Even though as children get older they learn increasingly more from their peers, parents and other adults continue to play a key role in their development. As such, it is important to leverage, support, and, as needed, enhance existing parent-child communication channels. This can be achieved by facilitating peer-to-peer adult conversation that provide opportunities for adults to examine their own norms, beliefs, and behaviors, and reflect on which of these they would like to address with their children, and how. Peer education groups can impart adults with the skills to become better communicators, and more skilled parents.

The programs must however take into account adults' limited availability, both in terms of time available for any one session, and in terms of availability for sustained attendance at a series of sessions. Creative approaches, such as natural, informal, small group opportunities (NISGOs) are essential to adequately reaching adults with peer education.

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