Understanding HIV Testing Behaviors of Minority Adolescents: A Health Behavior Model Analysis

Abstract

Adolescents and young adults are the fastest-growing age group of people living with HIVinfection in the United States. Yet many adolescents and young adults with high-risk behaviors for HIV are unaware of their HIV status and have never had an HIV test. The purpose of our work was to understand minority adolescents’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors related to HIV testing. We conducted focus group sessions with 41 minority adolescents to assess their perceptions about HIV testing. We triangulated the findings from our focus group data with data from a 125-question survey. Analysis of focus group data demonstrated that Perceived Susceptibility, Perceived Severity, Perceived Benefits, Perceived Barriers, and Cues to Action influenced adolescents’ decisions to get tested for HIV. Findings support the need to design interventions that address adolescents’ perceived barriers to HIV testing and increase access to and knowledge about HIV testing.

Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills of High-Risk Young Adults to Use the HIV Self-Test

“…Our findings about knowledge of HIV testing support common findings that most youth know about HIV testing, where to get tested, and have been tested at least once in their life, but don‘t get tested frequently enough due to misperceptions of risk and barriers such as social stigma and economic limitations (28). We used 2 questionnaires to measures knowledge and each had a scale of 0 (none correct) to 18 (perfect score).…”

“…Peer influence and perceived social norms have been identified as highly influential factors that motivate people to get tested for HIV, along with a history of sexually transmitted infection and risk awareness (8, 28). Our findings on youths‘ motivations to use the HIVST confirm existing research.…”

Do High-Risk Young Adults Use the HIV Self-Test Appropriately? Observations from a Think-Aloud Study

“…The HIV self-test may be of particular relevance to adolescents and young adults who are less likely to use clinic-based testing services because of coverage, stigma, and other priorities (8). Ethnic minority youth face significant challenges accessing preventive and treatment services (9-12).…”

“The right place and the right time”: A qualitative study of the decision‐making process of self‐initiated HIV testing among young adults

“…The initiation of the decision to obtain an HIV test was grounded in the knowledge as well as young adult's ability to assess HIV risks from sexual behaviors and identify the benefits of testing; this was observed in the majority of participants in this study and noted by previous studies (Leonard, Rajan, Gwadz, & Aregbesola, 2014;Meadowbrooke et al, 2014;Schnall, Rojas, & Travers, 2015). In this study, there were also no specific demographic differences in the participants that identified HIV risks and testing benefits, which may be an indication of the importance of these attributes in the decisionmaking process of young adults regardless of demographic characteristics.…”

“…Our research uniquely identified participants' self‐convincing process as they initiated the decision to seek testing. The participants who identified this prompt were relatively younger and may experience mental testing barriers like stigma and fear that remain deterrents of HIV testing (Phillips, Ybarra, Prescott, Parsons, & Mustanski, 2015; Schnall et al, 2015; Strauss, Rhodes, & George, 2015). Hence, the ability to assuage feelings of concern with the knowledge of HIV testing benefits through self‐convincing was essential for young adults to initiate testing decisions.…”