College Women's Sexuality in an Era of AIDS

Abstract

The author surveyed 238 heterosexual undergraduate women enrolled in a California university in 1993 to determine levels of perceived self-efficacy to engage in safer sexual behavior. She predicted that perceived self-efficacy levels would be related to dimensions of sexuality that may play a role in decreasing women's risk of sexually contracting HIV infection. These dimensions included stereotyped attitudes, assertiveness, communication, and safer sex behavior. For each of these dependent variables, she hypothesized that participants with high levels of perceived self-efficacy would report significantly more ‘favorable,’ or sexually assertive, responses than participants with low levels of perceived self-efficacy. Analyses using t tests confirmed all main hypotheses. In addition, one-way analyses of variance indicated that when combined with perceived self-efficacy levels, the survey participants' relationship status significantly influenced their responses.

Key Words:

• female sexuality
• safer sex
• scripting theory
• self-efficacy
• social-cognitive theory