Normative influence on condom use in the personal networks of female cocaine smokers

Attitudes-norms research (the theories of planned behavior and reasoned act ion) has been successful in accounting for many types of behavior change. O ne of the strengths of this approach has been to combine individual beliefs and normative influences in the explanation of behavior change. However, t he conceptualization of normative influence in these theories makes very st rong assumptions about self-awareness in the selection of normative referen ts. These assumptions are particularly problematic when applied to female c ocaine smokers, who report frequent sex while under duress or while cogniti vely impaired. In this study the original conceptualization of normative in fluence and two alternatives (assuming emotion-based and interaction-based selection of normative referents) are operationalized to evaluate stage of change for condom use among women who are heavy crack cocaine users with mu ltiple sex partners. Results show that stage of change for use of condoms w ith nonmain partners is best accounted for by interaction-based selection o f normative referents.