CROSS-VALIDATION OF MEASURES ASSESSING DECISIONAL BALANCE AND SELF-EFFICACY FOR CONDOM USE

The Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC) postulates two sensitive me diating variables, decisional balance and self-efficacy. Four measures of condom use developed with 296 women at high risk for HIV infection or transmission representing these two constructs were cross-validate d with 248 heterosexually active college men and women. Confirmatory f actor analysis (CFA) procedures were conducted with structural equatio n modeling (SEM), Factor structures for all condom-use measures were r eplicated using the second independent sample and a different method o f analysis, demonstrating the robustness of the scales. Model fit indi ces were excellent (e.g., decisional balance = .94 and .95; self-effic acy = .97 and .99), suggesting that more standardized measures can be used when assessing attitudes and behaviors toward condom use among he terosexual populations at various risk for HIV or sexually transmitted disease infection.