| This research had two goals: first, to determine what types of AIDS precautionary messages would be most persuasive; second, to determine which variables would be most predictive of future intentions to use a condom. Participants were given an AIDS preventive message either by a peer, an HIV positive peer or a medical student. The message was delivered in a print or video format and it focused either on the benefits of using condoms, or on the dangers of failing to use condoms with either loss or heightened loss framed language. Overall, there were no message, presenter, or channel effects on attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control or intentions. A closer examination revealed that this was partly due to a ceiling effect---the means for each measure were high regardless of experimental condition. With regards to the second goal of this research, identifying which variables best predicted intentions to use condoms, it was found that of the Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior variables, the attitudes variable was the best predictor, followed by subjective norms. The perceived control variable was not significant, even though in the first set of analyses it was the only variable that was affected by the manipulations to a degree that approached significance. In addition, the number of sexual partners in the past 6 months and past risk taking behaviors were important predictors. For the sexually active subsample, the best predictors of future intentions were past behavioral tendencies (if used condoms in the past and past risk taking behaviors) and attitudes toward the behavior. |
