Personal strategies for HIV prevention: The development and validation of a strategy-coding instrument

Catherine A. Sanderson, Colleen Diiorio, Edward Maibach, Nancy Cantor

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a coding instrument to classify college students' strategies for preventing HIV infection, and examines the association of distinct strategies with social cognitive and behavioral measures related to safer sexual behavior. This instrument classifies each strategy into both a content domain (e.g., using condoms, remaining abstinent, limiting sexual partners), and 3 distinct dimensions: commitment, specificity, and effectiveness. We examine the reliability and validity of this instrument by showing the discriminative associations of each dimension with social cognitive and behavioral measures, and demonstrate the differential importance of distinct dimensions in predicting behavior in different content domains. Discussion focuses on the importance of tailoring HIV prevention messages to change strategy dimensions in order to maximize behavior change.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1536-1554
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Applied Social Psychology
Volume29
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1999
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Social Psychology

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