AIDS ANXIETIES OF ADOLESCENTS - DETERMINANTS OF STATE AND TRAIT ANXIETY DIMENSIONS IN A LINEAR STRUCTURAL MODEL

This study presents the effects of general psychologic characteristics on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) anxieties and sexual beh aviour of adolescents. To this end, data were collected in a complex i nterview and subsequently subjected to a linear structural model analy sis. The questioned adolescents were divided into one representative g roup (n = 256) and a second group who had participated in a voluntary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody test (n = 45). AIDS anxiet ies have to be divided into two independent dimensions: first, a relat ively stable feeling of AIDS anxiety (trait anxiety) and second, a man ifest personal anxiety toward AIDS experienced in a concrete situation (state anxiety). A principal component analysis of the primary data b rought forth four variables described as depression/general anxiety, e xtent of phobic anxieties, compulsion, and tendency to self-consciousn ess. The present study reveals that the AIDS trait anxiety is more pro nounced among those subjects who are not well informed about AIDS, who tend to phobic anxieties, and who observe themselves in a particularl y intensive manner. The AIDS state anxiety however, is stronger among subjects who are well informed about AIDS, have sexual experience, and observe themselves intensively. Among the participants who took part in the HIV test, there were more individuals with a higher manifest AI DS anxiety and stronger tendency to depression. The percentage of adol escents who were indeed exposed to a possible risk of getting infected was relatively low. Generally speaking, those young people who are de pressed, anxious, and sexually active agreed more easily to take the t est than young people with a pronounced phobia toward the risk of infe ction and less sexual experience. As a conclusion, we can state that t hose adolescents with less sexual experience tend to externalize their general sexual anxieties in the form of concrete AIDS anxieties.