EFFECTS OF PREBEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE WORK ON ADOLESCENTS ACCEPTANCE OF CONDOMS

Two educational strategies designed to promote condom use for sexually transmitted disease protection were tested in a field experiment invo lving 291 female, adolescent family planning clinic clients. The 1st s trategy was designed to enhance attitude-behavior correspondence by in creasing direct experience with handling condoms. The 2nd, a contingen cy-planning exercise, induced clients to generate a mental representat ion of negotiating condom use with a sexual partner. Both strategies w ere compared with the standard education. The dependent measures were condom acceptance (operationalized by the number of condoms taken), at titudes, and knowledge. Clients in the contingency-planning condition accepted about 60% more condoms than did other clients. Condom attitud es followed the same pattern, and knowledge did not differ among condi tions.