Te. Wilson et al., HIV-ANTIBODY TESTING - BELIEFS AFFECTING THE CONSISTENCY BETWEEN WOMENS BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS AND BEHAVIOR, Journal of applied social psychology, 26(19), 1996, pp. 1734-1748
A sample of 763 nonpregnant, heterosexual, sexually active women resid
ing in an HIV-endemic area participated in a study to assess psycholog
ical predictors of HIV-antibody testing, in this sample, 464 women sai
d that they might or would be tested that day, although only 56 did so
. We examine salient beliefs that influenced testing decisions. In con
trast to other studies, which have focused on predictors of behavioral
intentions at only one point in lime, the current study accounts for
the fact that different concerns become salient to women at different
stages of the counseling and testing process. Prior to counseling, wom
en were deterred from testing because they feared the anxiety of waiti
ng for their test results. This suggests that efforts aimed at same-da
y testing may be beneficial for increasing rates of test taking. After
counseling and immediately preceding testing, women tended to follow
through on their intentions if they believed that testing would better
enable them to plan a pregnancy, and if they believed that it would n
ot be too late for treatment. The implications of these findings for t
he counseling and testing process are discussed.