AIDS, adolescents, and sexual risk taking: A test of the health belief model

Abstract

This study investigated the validity of the Health Belief Model when applied to adolescents' responses to the threat of AIDS. A sample of 195 sexually active 18-year-old university students was questioned about their sexual behaviour, their perceptions of the seriousness of AIDS, their own susceptibility to the disease, the costs and benefits of using condoms, their general health motivation, their sources of information, and their knowledge about AIDS. There were gender differences in health beliefs, with young women perceiving AIDS as more serious than males and perceiving more benefits of condom use. For young men, the Health Belief Model failed to predict sexual risk-taking either with casual partners or with regular (steady) partners. For young women, the model significantly predicted sexual risk with casual but not regular partners. Of the health beliefs, only perceived susceptibility contributed significantly to the variance in these young women's sexual risk with casual partners. In no case was knowledge about AIDS a significant predictor. Gender and partner differences are explained in terms of the multiple determinants of adolescent sexual behaviour, including the differing constructions placed on relationships by young men and women.