SELF-EFFICACY IN CONTRACEPTION FOR ADOLES CENTS - VALIDATION OF THE FRENCH VERSION OF THE LEVINSON SCALE

The social learning theory of Bandura leads us to believe that contrac eptive self-efficacy supports the adoption and the maintenance of effe ctive contraceptive behaviours during the teenage years. Levinson has developed a validated measure of this concept which consists of an 18- item scale for sexually active girls. However there are no such scales in French or for sexually active boys. The health promotion program, entitled SEXPRIMER, which aims at reducing teenage pregnancy, has inco rporated the French version of the Levinson scale, the adapted boy's v ersion and the validity studies. A 15-item scale for girls and a 14-it em scale for boys with respective reliability coefficients of .78 and .71 resulted from this program. A logistic regression analysis shows t he predictive value of the measures in regard to contraceptive behavio urs. According to Levinson's more recent studies, results indicate tha t new research on the factor matrix of the scale are relevant.