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CONDOM USE OF FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS AS A FUNCTION
OF INFORMATION VERSUS ROLE PLAY AND MODELING
Lisa Kirsten Hunter
DISCUSSION
The present study evaluated the impact of interventions focused on improving
attitudes toward condoms, willingness to use condoms, and safer sex practices.
Results on the attitude measures revealed no significant differences between
groups, no significant differences between posttest and follow-up, and
no significant interactions for any measure. The differences between groups
approached significance for the CUSES with the role play obtaining the
highest scores. Contrary to previous studies (Maibach
and Flora, 1993; Ploem and Byers, 1997), the addition of modeling and
role play were not significant in producing attitude change. Findings of
the study do not support the hypothesis that women exposed to the covert
modeling/rehearsal and the role play conditions would have more favorable
attitudes toward condoms and higher actual condom use than an information
only group. This may be due, in part, to a ceiling effect. Participants
in all groups scored at the high end of each scale, leaving little, if
any room for improvement. In addition, a larger sample size in each group
might have been helpful, though the differences between groups were small
on all measures.
Although no significant changes were found on the attitude measures,
significant changes in behavior occurred. Four behavioral indicators changed
significantly in the anticipated direction: sex with someone without discussing
using a condom first, having sex when your partner did not use a condom,
and sex after drugs and alcohol all decreased, and purchasing condoms increased.
In contrast to previous research (Carroll, 1991;
Jadack,
et al., 1995; Juran, 1995), women exposed to interventions incorporating
proper condom use and condom buying/carrying effectively changed behavior
in all three conditions in the present study. This suggests that just being
exposed to supportive condom buying/carrying information, as in the information
group, can positively effect behavior change. Empowering women with this
knowledge will help them feel more comfortable buying/carrying condoms,
using condoms at next sexual encounter and thus help to break the sexual
double standard.
Several methodological problems may have affected the results of this
study. Participants in all groups were told at the start not to discuss
information revealed until the end of the study, however, this may have
had a paradoxical effect and increased discussions between students. If
this occurred, the differences between the three conditions may have been
diluted. In addition, the experimenter could not control for spontaneous
interactions of the participants, making it difficult to standardize the
interventions. During one session one of the participants divulged that
she had a sexually transmitted disease. This evoked conversation about
safer sex practices and that she wished she had know how to use a condom
then. This led to playfulness with the modeling demonstration including
playing with the condoms. Also, participants may have had an idea as to
what the study was measuring and may have answered according to what they
thought the researcher wanted.
Other possible methodological problems with the study include experimenter
bias and reliability of measures, particularly behavioral measures associated
with such a sensitive issue. With the use of self-report, there is no direct
measure of behavior change in high-risk, real-life situations. Additional
limitations include small sample size and short follow-up.
For future studies, it may be that training time needs to be increased or that short daily or weekly training sessions need to be implemented for long-term maintenance. Future work in this area, with a larger sample size and diverse interventions, is needed to learn what combination and length of intervention strategies should be used for optimal results.