The contraceptive behavior of 213 sexually active never-married U.S. college students was examined using multiple regression analyses. The type of relationship--casual or steady--was a major determinant of contraceptive use: 77 percent of the respondents involved in steady relationships reported using condoms or the pill, compared with 58 percent of the respondents involved in casual relationships. Frequency of intercourse was the best predictor of contraceptive method used within steady relationships. Several variables emerged as predictors of contraceptive method used within casual relationships, including method used at first coital experience, age, and frequency of intercourse. Situational and background factors were found to have an important impact on adolescent contraceptive behavior and to warrant further research.

This handbook has several objectives and uses. First, it is designed to help HIV/AIDS researchers develop and write a detailed operations research proposal. An appropriate use of the handbook is as a resource in workshops or courses on research design and proposal development. Thus, the organization of the handbook follows that of a research proposal, starting with identifying, defining, and justifying a research problem, and ending with how to prepare a budget. Although the handbook is not an academic textbook on research methods, it does provide a review of many key concepts and important methods essential for conducting HIV/AIDS field research studies. These features can also help HIV/AIDS program administrators and managers as well as health policymakers understand the process of operations research and the uses of research findings to improve HIV/AIDS service delivery. Most examples were drawn from HIV/AIDS operations research studies conducted in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by the Horizons program, a global HIV/AIDS operations research program funded by USAID and implemented by the Population Council.

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