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Resumen
En el presente trabajo nos proponemos conocer la relación que guardan algunos de los factores propuestos en el modelo de la Información-Motivación-Habilidades conductuales de Fisher y Fisher (1992), con la implicación en conductas sexuales de riesgo en los adolescentes. La muestra utilizada para el estudio ha estado compuesta por 234 adolescentes escolarizados, comprendidos entre los 16 y los 19 años (126 varones—53.8 %—y 108 mujeres—46.2%—), todos los cuáles han tenido relaciones sexuales coitales, al menos, en una ocasión. A todos ellos se les pasó un cuestionario anónimo que comprendía diferentes escalas para evaluar las variables objeto del estudio, así como diferentes aspectos de su comportamiento sexual. Los resultados obtenidos suponen, en términos generales, un apoyo empírico al modelo de Fisher y Fisher (1992), si bien, aparecen diferencias importantes entre los chicos y chicas en cuanto a las variables asociadas a los comportamientos de riesgo y a la magnitud de tal asociación.
Abstract
The present study attempts to determine the relationship between some of the factors proposed in Fisher and Fisher's (1992) Information-Motivation-BehaviouralSkills model and engaging in risky sex practices in adolescence. The sample included 234 adolescents attending school, age ranging between 16 and 19 years (126 boys—53.8%—and 108 girls—46.2%–), all had engaged in full coitus on at least one occasion. The subjects were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire that included different scales in order to assess the variables under study together with different aspects of their sexual behaviour. Although, overall the present results empirically support Fisher and Fisher's (1992) Information-Motivation-BehaviouralSkills model, important differences were found between girls and boys both with respect to the variables associated to sexual risk and to the magnitude of this association.
Extended Summary
The aim of the present study was to establish the relationship between some of the factors proposed in Fisher and Fisher's (1992) Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills model and engaging in risky sex practices in adolescence. The sample included 234 adolescents attending school, age range between 16 and 19 years (126 boys—53.8%—and 108 girls—46.2%–), all had engaged in full coitus on at least one occasion. The subjects were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire that included different scales with a view to assessing the variables under study together with different aspects of their sexual behaviour. Specifically, we wanted to study which variables are associated with the sex risks proposed in Fisher and Fisher's model. For this purpose, we evaluated subjects' degree of awareness about pregnancy and HIV-AIDS—as variables associated with information. The variables linked to motivational aspects included in the study were: adolescents' attitudes towards condoms, attitudes towards casual sex, the perceived risk of pregnancy and AIDS, the normative views on contraception, and personal views about the need for protection. Finally, with respect to behavioural skills aimed at following healthy practices, we examined assertiveness and comfort concerning protection in sexual relations. As criterion variables, on one hand, we assessed the use or non-use of condoms in the last sexual encounter and, on the other hand, the assumption of risks in sexual relations, for which we developed a possible indicator based on subjects' information about their sexual experiences.
The results obtained indicate that boys who had used condoms in their last sexual relation, compared with those who had not, had more positive attitudes towards this method of protection, greater awareness of the risk of AIDS, and were more assertive when it was necessary to protect themselves against possible sex risks. Likewise, more positive attitudes toward casual sex and less assertiveness are the two variables associates to greater sexual risks in boys.
In turn, girls who had used condoms in their last sexual encounter, compared with those who had not, also showed more positive attitudes towards this method together with greater assertiveness towards protection. They also believed—to a greater extent than the girls who had not used condoms—that their peers consider protection in sexual relations to be necessary, and they were personally more convinced of this need. These same four variables are negatively associated with the assumption of sexual risk in girls.
Apart from these differences regarding variables associated with behaviours involving sexual risk or protection between boys and girls, the results show there are important differences in the their power to predict behaviour in one sex or the other. This is more marked in the girls than in the boys.
Overall, we believe that the results of the present study point out the usefulness of psychological models such as Fisher and Fisher's (1992) Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills model to study healthy or risky sexual practices in adolescents. However, the association between predictive and criteria variables with respect to the observed differences between boys and girls requires further future research.