Includes bibliographical references. / The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is characterised mainly by heterosexual transmission and an extremely rapid spread among adolescents and young adults in their early twenties, indicating the need for an increased focus on preventive efforts aimed at this age group. Apart from the development of a cure or vaccine to prevent HIV transmission, preventive programmes clearly offer the best chance of halting the spread of HIV, and these need to be based on behavioural change to modify or prevent risk behaviours. The challenge is to develop suitable theory-based programmes that address and promote safer sex behaviour, taking into account the local social and cultural environment. This cross-sectional study focused on a key HIV preventive behaviour, namely condom usage, and used as its research target adolescents, a key risk group for HIV infection in South Africa. It aimed to investigate the key variables that influence condom usage among adolescents in the Cape Town metropolitan area. The study was based on an integrated theoretical model using constructs from 5 of the most common social cognitive behavioural theories, namely, the Health Belief Model, Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Subjective Culture and Interpersonal Relations. In addition, variables from Basch’s construct availability model were included. The sample comprised a representative three-stage sample of grade 11 adolescents from 36 schools in the Cape Town Metropolitan area (n = 1931). Formative research, in the form of an elicitation study using to focus group interviews with a purposive sample of adolescents, was used to develop the theory-based self-completion questionnaire used in this study. Twelve constructs were included in the questionnaire as potential correlates of condom use, namely: intention, self-standards, self-efficacy, affect, attitude, beliefs, norms, condom availability, health concern, worry about AIDS, construct availability and condom availability. The dependent variable was condom use on the last coital episode.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/12514 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Vergnani, Tania |
| Contributors | Flisher, Alan J |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, Doctoral, PhD |
| Format | application/pdf |
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