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Birth Control Versus AIDS Prevention: A Hierarchical Model of Condom Use Among Young People 1
Author(s) -
Reinecke Jost,
Schmidt Peter,
Ajzen Icek
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb00657.x
Subject(s) - condom , theory of planned behavior , psychology , variance (accounting) , birth control , multilevel model , sexual behavior , social psychology , control (management) , perception , perceived control , developmental psychology , demography , family planning , statistics , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , population , medicine , family medicine , research methodology , computer science , mathematics , artificial intelligence , business , sociology , accounting , syphilis , neuroscience
The authors report the results of a nationwide survey of young people in Germany which applied the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991) to condom use for purposes of birth control and with new sexual partners (to prevent AIDS). A hierarchical model, in which the 2 functions of condom use were treated as separate 2nd‐order factors, was found to be superior to a single‐factor model. The hierarchical model also provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validities of indicators used to assess the constructs in the theory of planned behavior. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of behavioral control all made significant contributions to the predictions of intentions, accounting for 62.0% and 70.9% of the variance for birth control and AIDS prevention, respectively. Perceived behavioral control carried most of the weight in the former prediction, while attitudes carried most of the weight in the latter. Implications of these findings are discussed.