Factors associated with AIDS risk behaviors among high school students in an AIDS spicenter (original) (raw)
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Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2000
The present study focused on predicting AIDS-preventive behavioral intentions (ix., intentions to discuss AIDS-related information and to use condoms) from constructs taken from the health belief model, the theory of reasoned action/planned behavior, and social cognitive theory. Questionnaire data Here collected from I24 undergraduates using scales from previously published work as well as some new measures designed Ibr this study. Perceived behavioral control, perceived risk, attitudes, self-efiicacj, sub.jective norms, negative expected outcomes. and perceived severity of HIV infection here correlated with at least one intention measure; but regression analyses showed that perceived behavioral control was the strongest independent predictor of condom use intentions and of intentions to discuss AIDS information with a partner. Implications for theory and application are discussed. AIDS is among the most tragic and socially significant diseases in recent history, and while researchers have been optimistic about potential treatments, an effective vaccine or cure is not likely until the somewhat distant future. In the last 3 years alone, almost one quarter of a million people were diagnosed with AIDS, and the estimated current number of Americans infected with HIV is 630,000 to 900,000 (Buchanan & Cernada, 1998). Apparently, the only current feasible means by which this disease can be controlled is through prevention, which necessitates the use of education and behavior-change interventions. However, Goldman and Harlow (1993) have argued that risk-reduction efforts that are based on education alone have been unsuccessful in the long run. Therefore, effective HIV-/AIDS-preventive behavior-change interventions are necessary, with the development of such interventions requiring an understanding of risk behaviors and factors that influence these behaviors (Basen-Engquist, 1992). According to Stine (1995), condom use by large numbers of people is essential for effective control of HIV, and Stine stated that the idea of safer sexual practices now refers almost exclusively to the use of a latex condom which, with the obvious exception of abstinence, is the most important AIDS-risk-reducing
Preventive interventions are a central aspect of working with youth in general and youth at risk in particular. The field of "Prevention Science", is gaining momentum in view of theoretical and practical information that accumulates. While in the past years researchers have been working on how to build a preventive program that will yield effective results, much attention is being paid today to the question how to introduce and implement the prevention program developed in various social and educational settings. However, there is a possibility, which has not been studied so far, that the difference between cultures exists not only at the level of the need to translate the content and examples that will form the particular program, but also at the more basic level of belief in the very ability to prevent problems. In the current study, in-depth interviews were conducted with adolescents and adults of different religious background, in pursuing of clarifying the discretion that could shape the individual's belief in the ability or inability to prevent youth risk behavior. The findings of the study do indicate a number of criteria according to which adolescents and adults assess the ability to prevent risk behavior; several of the criteria are universal and others are culturally, religiously and age-dependent. In light of the study findings, it is proposed to incorporate differential components -depending on culture, age and religion -in which the basic beliefs regarding the probability of preventing the behaviors in question will be explored, addressed and promoted. In addition, it is suggested that greater attention should be given to additional intercultural differences, which must be taken into account both during the design of a prevention program and in the attempt to implement it.
With the increasing threat of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), intensive educational programs are implemented and/or planned worldwide. It is usually assumed that providing information and generating concern leads to AIDS-preventive behaviors. Attitude theory and research in social psychology does not necessarily support this assumption. Studies suggest that individuals may use defensive information screening and/or denial strategies to deal with the anxiety that is produced by such information. Also, research indicates that effects on behavior are mediated by normative factors that support or oppose them. With regard to sexual beliefs and behaviors, family, peer group, and sexual partner(s) are important normative groups for adolescents and young adults. The present investigation is aimed at measuring the relationcrlip between these normative factors and AIDS-preventive behaviors in 274 college students in a small conservative town in the United States. Results indicated that, although knowledge level was high, a considerable proportion of the respondents were involved in risky behaviors.
British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1998
A recent debate in the British Journal of Medical PJycho~ogy has considered the role of social cognitive models, such as the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behaviour, in understanding HIV-preventive behaviour. In this paper we clarify some of the assumptions involved in applications of social cognitive models. We briefly review available evidence on the capacity of such models to predict HIV-preventive sexual behaviour and outline a number of criteria for judging their predictive success. The importance of behavioural prediction for the development of effective HIV-preventive behavioural interventions is discussed and recent evaluations of interventions based on these models are reviewed. We conclude that the models are effective in predicting HIVpreventive behaviours and provide empirically supported theoretical guidance on psychological changes likely to result in HIV-preventive behaviour change. In addition we argue that, to date, evaluations of theoretically specified interventions are encouraging. Further development and rigorous testing of HIV/AIDS interventions based on social cognitive models is recommended. Joffe (1996) proposes that research into HIV preventive behaviour is dominated by a 'knowledge, attitude, belief, practice (KABP) paradigm' (p. 169) which she suggests is based on two social cognitive models-the health belief model (HBM) and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (pp. 169-170). Joffe outlines what she considers to be a number of theoretical and empirical difficulties inherent in this KAPB approach and questions its utility for the development of HIV-preventive health education materials. In a commentary on Joffe, Fife-Schaw (1997) shares 'some scepticism of the wisdom of continuing to promote and spend money on traditional models (HBM, TRA)' (p. 72) but also suggests that these models have provided 'insights' into the cognitive antecedents of behaviour and recommends that psychologists continue to work towards the identification of modifiable cognitions which characterize individuals who are more likely to adopt preventive health behaviours with a view to informing health education practice (p. 72).
The sudden emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s created an urgent requirement to achieve rapid, voluntary, and sustained behavior change to protect individual and public health. Social psychologists, realizing the relevance of the research approaches and theoretical models that define the discipline, began applying existing research methodologies and conceptual models of attitude and behavior change and developed new models aimed at understanding, predicting, and promoting AIDS preventive behavior. This chapter explores the history of the AIDS epidemic, the unique behavior change challenges it poses, and the application of social psychological approaches in the fight against this disease. We review classical social psychological theories that have been applied to promote safer sex behavior change and describe a novel Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) conceptualization that was developed to strengthen efforts to understand, predict, and promote AIDS preventive behavior. The IMB model has been applied successfully to understanding and predicting AIDS risk and AIDS preventive behavior in diverse settings worldwide, and IMB model-based interventions have produced sustained improvements in AIDS preventive behavior in a wide variety of intervention settings. Applications of the IMB model across multiple health behavior domains, including the prediction and promotion of adherence to medical regimen, cardiac health, and diabetes self-management, have established the IMB model as a highly generalizable theoretical and applied approach to health behavior change.
Extending social cognition models of health behaviour
Health Education Research, 2011
A cross-sectional study assessed the extent to which indices of social structure, including family socio-economic status (SES), social deprivation, gender and educational/lifestyle aspirations correlated with adolescent condom use and added to the predictive utility of a theory of planned behaviour model. Analyses of survey data from 824 sexually active 16-year-olds (505 women and 319 men) tested three hypotheses. Firstly, social structure measures will correlate with behaviour-specific cognitions that predict condom use. Secondly, cognition measures will not fully mediate the effects of social structural indices and thirdly, the effects of cognitions on condom use will be moderated by social structure indices. All three hypotheses were supported. SES, gender and aspirations accounted for between 2 and 7% of the variance in behaviour-specific cognitions predicting condom use. Aspirations explained a further 4% of the variance in condom use, controlling for cognition effects. Mother's SES and gender added an additional 5%, controlling for aspirations. Overall, including significant moderation effects, of social structure indices increased the variance explained from 20.5% (for cognition measures alone) to 31%. These data indicate that social structure measures should to be investigated in addition to cognitions when modelling antecedents of behaviour, including condom use.
Female college students' perceived vulnerability to AIDS and their perceived self-efficacy regarding AIDS preventive behavior (APB), were manipulated in a 2 x 2 design. Consistent with protection motivation theory (e.g.. Rogers. 1983), the results showed that intention to engage in APB was highest among subjects who received information that their risk of getting infected with HIV was high. and who experienced relatively high feelings of self-efficacy. These subjects also seemed least likely to engage in denial of their AIDS risk. The implications of these tindings for AIDS education programs are discussed.
Psychological determinants of AIDS-preventive behaviors were examined from the perspective of the theory of reasoned action in prospective studies of gay men, heterosexual university students, and heterosexual high school students. Across samples, preventive behaviors, and prospective intervals of 1 and 2 months' duration, AIDS-preventive behaviors were predicted by behavioral intentions; behavioral intentions were a function of attitudes and norms; and attitudes and norms were a function of their theorized basic underpinnings. Discussion focuses on the development of AIDS-prevention interventions that modify intentions, attitudes, and norms concerning performance of AIDS-preventive behaviors by targeting the empirically identified underpinnings of attitudes and norms related to specific preventive behaviors in specific populations of interest.