The Role of Cues, Self-Efficacy, Level of Worry, and High-Risk Behaviors in College Student Condom Use

An anonymous survey, developed to pursue correlates of condom use, was administered to 879 college students. The survey consisted of a variety of single-item measures of demographics and sexual behavior, as well as five instruments which assessed self-efficacy, perceived barriers, perceived susceptibility to HIV/ AIDS/STDs, cues, and perceived norms. A discriminant function analysis was conducted to test the ability of the variables to distinguish between three condom user groups. Measures assessing cues to condom action, number of sex partners, oral contraceptive use, frequency of drunkenness during sexual intercourse, frequency of worrying about contracting HIV/STDs, and dimensions of self-efficacy were effective in discriminating between the condom user groups. Scale development issues, implications of these findings, and recommendations for future research are presented.