The purpose of this research proposal is to investigate the relative efficacy of pregnancy, STI, or HIV prevention-focused interventions on increasing condom use in heterosexual young adults. We predict, based on conceptual arguments developed in our proposal, that for heterosexual young adults, pregnancy- and STI-focused interventions will be more effective in promoting condom use than HIV-focused interventions. To the best of our knowledge, no research to date has directly compared the effects of pregnancy, STI, and HIV prevention-focused interventions in promoting condom use. The components of each intervention will be based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills model of health-behavior change (Fisher & Fisher, 1992). Each intervention will share common elements, but will have a pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, or an HIV prevention focus.
Specific aim one will involve the design and pilot testing of separate pregnancy-, STI-, and HIV-focused experimental interventions and a matched-for-time control condition.
Specific aim two will employ a randomized control intervention trial to test the relative efficacy of the three interventions and the matched-for-time control on condom use. Participants will complete intervention/outcome measures of condom use at pre-intervention, three months post-intervention, and six months post-intervention. The predicted finding-that for a heterosexual population a pregnancy or STI prevention-focused intervention will increase condom use more than an HIV prevention-focused intervention-has important theoretical implications, as well as implications for the future development and dissemination of effective HIV prevention interventions. Conceptually, we argue that health-behavior change interventions may be most effective when they focus on conditions that are both available and representative for the target population, rather than on conditions that are not salient in memory and do not accurately represent a typical member of the target population. This framework may apply to other public health domains, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. This proposal seeks to be an impetus leading to future health-behavior change interventions designed to target health conditions that threaten particular populations, and to use the availability and representativeness of that particular threat as a means to alleviate it. ? ? ?
