BIRTH-CONTROL VERSUS AIDS-PREVENTION - A HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF CONDOMUSE AMONG YOUNG-PEOPLE

The authors report the results of a nationwide survey of young people in Germany which applied the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991) to condom use for purposes of birth control and with new sexual partners (to prevent AIDS). A hierarchical model, in which the 2 funct ions of condom use were treated as separate 2nd-order factors, was fou nd to be superior to a single-factor model. The hierarchical model als o provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validities of indicators used to assess the constructs in the theory of planned beha vior. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of behavioral contr ol all made significant contributions to the predictions of intentions , accounting for 62.0% and 70.9% of the variance for birth control and AIDS prevention, respectively. Perceived behavioral control carried m ost of the weight in the former prediction, while attitudes carried mo st of the weight in the latter. Implications of these findings are dis cussed.