The objective of the proposed research is to establish the effect of condom use interventions and identify the message's content, source, context, and recipient factors that determine the effectiveness of communications that advocate condom use for HIV and STD prevention. To study this problem, a thorough review of published and unpublished reports of research on condom use interventions will be conducted. Research reports will be selected if they present research on the outcomes of a standardized communication to induce condom use, and report the effect of the communication on psychological or behavioral response variables. Effect sizes will be estimated for condom use interventions in general, and mean weighted correlations will be calculated to determine the influence of : (a) behavioral factors including type of sex (communication advocating condom use with steady or casual partners); (b) message factors including content (attitude-, norm-, control-, threat-, or information-oriented); if """"""""attitude oriented"""""""", theme addressed in the message (physical pros, physical cons, social cons, and personal pros); affective tone in framing (risk- or gain-frame); general affective tone; and narrative style (story or list presentation); (c) source and (d) recipient factors including gender, age, ethnicity, and group membership (e.g., men who have sex with men, female partners of intravenous drug users, or female sex workers). If Q statistics reject the homogeneity hypothesis, additional analyses will control for message delivery and methodological moderators that are potential extraneous variables relevant to the issues of concern. The present research is expected to contribute to current knowledge in the area of HIV communication and to the development of future preventive attempts to combat AIDS.
