Which outcome expectancies are important in determining young adults’ intentions to use condoms with casual sexual partners?: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundThe prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection amongst young adults represents an important public health problem in the UK. Individuals’ attitude towards the use of condoms has been identified as an important determinant of behavioural intentions and action. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been widely used to explain and predict health behaviour. This posits that the degree to which an individual positively or negatively values a behaviour (termed ‘direct attitude’) is based upon consideration of the likelihood of a number of outcomes occurring (outcome expectancy) weighted by the perceived desirability of those outcomes (outcome evaluation). Outcome expectancy and outcome evaluation when multiplied form ‘indirect attitude’. The study aimed to assess whether positive outcome expectancies of unprotected sex were more important for young adults with lower safe sex intentions, than those with safer sex intentions, and to isolate optimal outcomes for targeting through health promotion campaigns.MethodsA cross-sectional survey design was used. Data was collected from 1051 school and university students aged 16–24 years. Measures of intention, direct attitude and indirect attitude were taken. Participants were asked to select outcome expectancies which were most important in determining whether they would use condoms with casual sexual partners.ResultsPeople with lower safe sex intentions were more likely than those with safer sex intentions to select all positive outcome expectancies for unprotected sex as salient, and less likely to select all negative outcome expectancies as salient. Outcome expectancies for which the greatest proportion of participants in the less safe sex group held an unfavourable position were: showing that I am a caring person, making sexual experiences less enjoyable, and protecting against pregnancy.ConclusionsThe findings point to ways in which the attitudes of those with less safe sex intentions could be altered in order to motivate positive behavioural change. They suggest that it would be advantageous to highlight the potential for condom use to demonstrate a caring attitude, to challenge the potential for protected sex to reduce sexual pleasure, and to target young adults’ risk appraisals for pregnancy as a consequence of unprotected sex with casual sexual partners.

The development of a new condom use expectancy scale for at-risk adults

“…Additionally, studies have found negative outcome expectancies associated with lower intentions to use condoms (Newby et al, 2013) and less condom use (Albarracín et al, 2000), and safe sex outcome expectancies did not predict condom use (Albarracín et al, 2000). This indicates that the scale developed and analyzed in the current study assesses similar aspects of condom use expectancies, while it is more comprehensive for this specific, high-risk population.…”

“…This finding is consistent with the research findings reported here. Finally, similar to our approach, Newby and colleagues (2013) reviewed research that elicited condom use expectancies and combined the most commonly elicited responses to develop and test a scale. They also found an association between condom use expectancies and intentions to use condoms (Newby et al, 2013).…”

“…Perceived pleasure and perceived obligation condom use expectancies were found to be positively associated with intentions to use condoms, and intentions were positively associated with condom use consistency. Newby, Brown, French, and Wallace (2013) reviewed research that elicited condom use expectancies and combined the most commonly elicited items into a scale to evaluate college students’ condom use intentions. They found that those who had negative condom use expectancies had low intentions to use condoms (Newby et al, 2013).…”

“…Newby, Brown, French, and Wallace (2013) reviewed research that elicited condom use expectancies and combined the most commonly elicited items into a scale to evaluate college students’ condom use intentions. They found that those who had negative condom use expectancies had low intentions to use condoms (Newby et al, 2013). The present study evaluated the factor structure and predictive utility of a condom use expectancy scale in the prediction of risky sexual behavior among drug users.…”

Conocimiento y fuentes de información sobre las ITS/VIH, comunicación sobre sexo y actitud hacia el uso del preservativo en adolescentes y padres/madres salvadoreños

“…Es de naturaleza aprendida (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975) y constituye un factor determinante para que la conducta finalmente se lleve a cabo (Newby, Brown, French, & Wallace, 2013 las actitudes positivas hacia el uso del preservativo inciden en su uso habitual (e.g., Castro, Bermúdez, Buela-Casal, & Madrid, 2011;Giménez-García, Ballester-Arnal, Gil-Llario, Cárdenas-López, & Durán Baca, 2013). Además, las actitudes de los adolescentes sobre la sexualidad están muy influenciadas por las actitudes que existen en el seno familiar (Ferreira et al, 2013).…”