Decision-making orientation and AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of Hispanic, African-American, and White adolescents.

Abstract

How adolescents' personal sense of directedness (i.e., peer, parent, or self-directed orientation) affects the decision-making processes of adolescent students regarding AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and skills (KABBS) is examined. The sample consisted of 10th-grade students in 8 public high schools (N = 2,515) in Dade County (greater Miami), Florida. The findings showed that decision-making orientation and directedness was a significant predictor of AIDS-related KABBS of adolescents. Overall, the level of AIDS-related KABBS that were associated with low risk was found significantly more often among self-directed students and least often among peer-directed students. The findings of this study suggest that future preadult health-risk research should incorporate the concept of differences of information processing across adolescents.

The Strong African American Families Program: Longitudinal Pathways to Sexual Risk Reduction

“…Because young people value sexual activity as a sign of maturity [19], peer orientation may be a particularly powerful source of risk in this domain. Indeed, previous research has found peer orientation to be associated with risky sexual attitudes and behavior [21]. Although a connection between self-pride and peer orientation has not been established in the literature, we hypothesize that a positive self-image will render adolescents less likely to conform to perceived peer norms by adopting risky sexual attitudes and behaviors.…”

Effects of a School‐Based, Theory‐Driven HIV and Pregnancy Prevention Curriculum

“…Previous work has shown the importance of targeting high sensation-seeking individuals when delivering successful mass media messages focusing on risk behavior such as substance abuse, 22,[23][24][25][26] and of focusing on impulsive decision makers when designing messages related to risky sexual behavior. 27 Consequently, we conclude that it might also be important to target these groups in the design of HIV and pregnancy prevention classroom interventions. In this article, we assess whether adapting a successful school-based curriculum to meet the needs of these individuals improves its effectiveness in promoting safer behaviors.…”

Initiating Sexual Experiences: How Do Young Adolescents Make Decisions Regarding Early Sexual Activity?

“…Past research on early adolescent sexual decision making focused on two major decision points: whether or not to engage in sexual intercourse and whether or not to use safer sex methods, such as condoms (Hulton, 2001). Quantitative studies identified risk and protective factors that appear to influence adolescents' decisions to engage in sexual activity or to use safer sex methods, including self-efficacy, parental values, peer norms, supervision, decision-making orientation, and partner communication (e.g., Cohen, Farley, Taylor, Martin, & Schuster, 2002;DiIorio, Dudley, Kelly, Soet, Mbwara, & Sharpe Potter, 2001;DiIorio, Dudley, Soet, & McCarty, 2004;Epstein, Dusenbury, Botvin, & Diaz, 1994;Jensen, de Gaston, & Weed, 1994;Langer, Zimmerman, Warheit, & Duncan, 1993;Longmore, Manning, Giordano, & Rudolph, 2003;Paikoff, 1995;Rosenthal, von Ranson, Cotton, Biro, Mills, & Succop, 2001;Sieving, Resnick, Bearinger, Remafedi, Taylor, & Harmon, 1997).…”