HIV risk perceptions among adolescents attending family planning clinics: An integrated perspective

Abstract

The current study assessed the impact of individual, interpersonal, and contextual factors on HIV risk perception. A total of 426 female adolescents attending family planning clinics took part in this study. The majority, 60.1% were African-American and 39.9% were Hispanic. The results indicated that the majority of participants perceived themselves to be at no or low risk for contracting HIV. Individual, interpersonal as well as contextual factors correlated with HIV risk perception in the study. Adolescents who perceived themselves to be at no or low risk were more likely to be Hispanic, be married and had children. They also felt that they can control situations where they have to refuse sex or insist on condom use, had more frequent communication with sexual partners about condom use and held perceptions that peer norms support condom use. The findings in this study have important implications for risk reduction education for female adolescents. Risk reduction education should strengthen adolescents' personal skills to help them avoid HIV risk despite the various pressures they experience in their life.

The Influence of Individual, Partner, and Relationship Factors on HIV Testing in Adolescents

“…Nevertheless, more than half of our participants were not motivated to be tested, confirming the impression that many adolescents do not consider themselves at risk even though their behavior is risky. [11][12][13][14]53 A study on acceptance of an HIV test offer showed that even after administration of a self-risk checklist assessment tool, only * 50% of adolescents at risk accepted an offer of an HIV test, with African American adolescents accepting more often than Latino adolescents. 54 HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness of an adolescent's own risk behavior may be necessary, but not sufficient, to change health risk or protective behavior.…”

Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Correlates of Condom Use among Young Adults from Continuation High Schools

“…They may not think that they are at risk for HIV but are not ruling out the possibility that they are at risk for HIV simply because they are young. Since they are more aware of the potential risk, safer sexual behaviors are selected (e.g., monogamy; a low-risk profile as in Buzi, Smith, Weinman, & Novello, [2013]). Also, perceived HIV risk is known among the sample, but the likelihood of HIV infection, a potential moderator of the relationship, is unknown.…”

“…Perceiving HIV vulnerability has influenced condom use among African American and Latino adolescent and young adult males (Brooks, Lee, Stover, & Barkley, 2011;Kennedy et al, 2007). Buzi, Smith, Weinman, and Novello (2013) found that females utilizing family planning clinics and with low HIV risk perception are more likely to be Latina and exhibit lower risk behaviors (e.g., fewer sexual partners), but their use of condoms is unknown. When the relationship between perceived susceptibility and condom use is explored among females, perceived susceptibility is tailored to pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections [STI].…”

“…African American adolescents who perceive their close friends as holding anti-condom sentiments have inconsistent condom use (Dolcini et al, 2013). Latino males and females who perceive peer norms supporting condom use are more likely to report consistent condom usage (Kapadia et al, 2012), but Latinas also have a perceived low HIV risk (Buzi et al, 2013). Peer norms have also been shown to have no relationship with condom use among ethnically diverse CHS youth (Coyle et al, 2006;Coyle et al, 2013), African American females (Crosby et al, 2013), and rural adolescents (Haley, Puskar, Terhorst, Terr, & Charron-Prochownik, 2012).…”

Broad Study Model Needed To Understand Adolescents’ Perception of Their HIV Risk

“…An integrated approach that simultaneously accounts for multiple dimensions of adolescents’ characteristics appears to be necessary to understanding their perceived risk of HIV . According to a study of young black and Hispanic female family planning clinic clients that—unlike previous studies—included individual, interpersonal and contextual variables, 47% of youth perceived that they had no risk of HIV, 37% thought they had a low risk and 16% thought they had a medium or high risk.…”