SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY AND AIDS PREVENTION

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Proposed is a multidimensional educational intervention to reduce behavior related to risk of HIV transmission in a population of college students. Students enrolled at the Newark and Camden campuses of Rutgers University in New Jersey will be targeted. The intervention will utilize principles from social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) in order to enhance behavioral change in addition to increasing knowledge. Major components of the intervention include a) student volunteers to lead informational discussions and stage role-plays at student centers and dormitories; b) videotaped role plays demonstrating strategies for overcoming social pressures to avoid the practice of safer sex in several relevant populations; c) dramatic enactments of social situations relevant to risk- reducing behaviors, performed by a professional acting group; and d) dissemination of informational audio tapes, radio and newspaper ads and written material. The intervention will be assessed in several ways, including anonymous large-scale surveys and non- anonymous small-scales surveys conducted on the Rutgers-Newark campus and on a control campus; quantitation of condom sales on campus and locally; and HIV seroprevalence and STD incidence. Subsequent analyses will examine possible psychological mediation by perceived self-efficacy to take self-protective action; perceived vulnerability to infection; perceived efficacy of risk- reducing behaviors; degree of peer support for safer behavior; and self-esteem.