Does Past Condom Use Moderate the Future Condom Use Intention-Behavior Relationship? Results from a Ghanaian Sample

ABSTRACT

Behavioral intention is an important predictor of actual behavior. Yet, people often fail to act on their intentions. This study used panel data to examine whether intention interacts with past behavior in determining future behavior. Young people in the Eastern Region of Ghana (N = 956, 495 = female, 461 = male) completed a structured self-administered questionnaire, assessing intentions to use condoms and past condom use behavior at Time 1, and future condom use behavior at Time 2. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that intentions to use condoms and past condom use behavior accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in future condom use behavior. In addition, past condom use moderated the future condom use intention–behavior relationship. These results demonstrate the usefulness of considering young people's past experiences with condoms in informing the design of condom use skills training. In other words, a condom use skills training intervention that uses the pedagogical approach of starting from the “known” to the “unknown” might benefit young Ghanaians.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent sexual health
• condoms
• intention-behavior gap
• past behavior

Disclosure

The research reported on here emerged from the doctoral dissertation of the corresponding author. Thus, opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not to be attributed to the Graduate School or Stellenbosch University. All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study

Author Notes

Enoch Teye-Kwadjo (PhD) is a Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Ghana, Ghana. His research interests focus on health behavior theory, adolescent sexual health, HIV, and condom use. His other research interests include psychometrics, structural equation modeling, qualitative and quantitative data analyses. He also conducts research on traffic risk perception and road traffic behavior.

Ashraf Kagee (PhD, MPH) is a distinguished Professor of Health Psychology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His work is broadly located at the nexus of psychology and public health and is specifically focused on mental health among persons living with HIV and on psychological and structural factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). His other research interests include stress and trauma, mental health and chronic illness, and evidence-based practice.

Hermann Swart (DPhil) is a Lecturer in Social Psychology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research interests include diversity, intergroup contact, intergroup emotions, prejudice and stereotype reduction in post conflict societies, and interpersonal friendships. He also specializes in longitudinal research and multivariate analyses using structural equation modeling.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University in the form of a doctoral scholarship awarded to the corresponding author.