Student-favoured strategies for AIDS avoidance

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Abstract
Many of the young adults who constitute the bulk of the Australian university student population engage in a number of sexual practices currently considered by health authorities to place them at risk of contracting the human immuno‐deficiency virus (HIV). The present study combines data obtained by self‐administered survey questionnaire from samples of students at the University of Sydney (1987) and Macquarie University (1988), relating to their sexual behaviours, information possessed about means of HIV transmission, and their beliefs about the appropriate behavioural measures to reduce the chances of infection. Five scales of correlated sets of items were identified from the belief data as indicating particular strategies for AIDS avoidance. These related to reliance on regular partner, condom use, avoidance of certain sorts of people, asking about partners' history, and mass screening. The endorsement of particular strategies differs according to respondents' sex and/ or whether or not they are sexually experienced. It is suggested that any effective AIDS education campaign targeted at the university population will need to take account of students' pre‐existing views as to how to protect themselves, and that some of these views may be based upon values and prejudices which predate the AIDS epidemic.