This is a proposal to continue to follow 1,172 children and adolescents participating in the project """"""""Children's Conceptions of AIDS and Related Risky Behaviors. The primary aims of the project are 1) to examine the links between early knowledge, attitudes, and norms and later substance use and HIV risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex; and 2) to examine the developmental process whereby young people move from having negative attitudes and intentions toward substance use and sexual risk behavior to having positive attitudes or intentions or engaging in that behavior. The study will attempt to describe and predict the transition to risk behavior using the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the Social Development Model (Hawkins & Weis, 1985). The proposed research has three distinct phases: a preparatory focus group phase, a longitudinal data collection phase, and a data analysis phase. First, focus groups will be conducted with high school-aged students not involved in the longitudinal study to elicit information needed for survey design. Then, the four grade cohorts now participating in the study will be surveyed in four successive years. These young people first completed surveys as part of this study when they were in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. In Year 01(1994/95) of the proposed project, subjects will be in grades six, seven, eight, and nine. The proposed project extends this longitudinal study, adding four waves of data collection and allowing us to assess substance use and risk behaviors in the high school years. The sample is multi-ethnic (47% European American, 24% African American, 20% Asian American, and 9% other ethnicity) and has been highly cooperative with repeated surveys. The design allows examination of developmental changes across an important period, childhood through adolescence, during which major shifts are occurring in substance use and sexual attitudes, norms, intentions, and behavior. The research team provides experience in research on drug use, sexuality and contraception, and AIDS.
| Beadnell, Blair; Morrison, Diane M; Wilsdon, Anthony et al. (2005) Condom use, frequency of sex, and number of partners: multidimensional characterization of adolescent sexual risk-taking. J Sex Res 42:192-202 |
