A Quantitative Study on the Condom-Use Behaviors of Eighteen- to Twenty-Four–Year-Old Urban African American Males

This research study sought to develop, pilot test, and assess a brief male-centered condom promotion program for urban young adult African American males. For study implementation, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, and the project was guided by tenets of two common but integrated theoretical frameworks in HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention research: the social cognitive theory and the stages of change model. The purpose of the qualitative component was to identify and explore condom-use barriers and facilitators while that of the quantitative component was to identify the prevalence of condom-related behaviors and the feasibility of program administration. After recruitment of study participants from hang-out spots and street intercepts, study participants were self-administered a baseline survey regarding their perceived condom-use behaviors prior to random assignment to program conditions (a condom promotion program and an attention-matched comparison condition). In this paper, we report the findings from the analyses of the quantitative baseline survey data. While the occurrence of HIV/STD-related risk behavIors were highly prevalent among this population; importantly, regression analyses revealed that sexual debut, favorable attitudes toward condom use, social or personal connectedness to HIV/STDs, health beliefs, perceived susceptibility, unprotected sexual encounters, and refusal skills were predictive of retrospective (i.e., prior 30 days) condom use while positive reasons (pros) to use condoms, condom-use beliefs, condom-carrying, health belief, unprotected sexual encounters and refusal skills were also predictive of prospective (i.e., future 30 days) condom-use intentions. The implications and limitations of this study are described and recommendations provided for program development.