Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Promoting condom use is an important strategy used by sexual health policies in Africa to reduce transmission of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This study examines some of the social factors that might be used to promote condom use in Africa with a particular focus on the role of women’s opportunities for earning cash incomes. It uses a multilevel framework and data from the 2003 Zambian Sexual Behavior Survey to examine the relationship between the level of women’s cash earning activity in a community and condom use while controlling for the individual characteristics of respondents and their relationships as well as other characteristics of their communities of residence. The study finds that the percent of women with cash earning jobs in a community is positively related to the likelihood that condoms will be used in sexual relations. The positive relationship is particularly strong for consistent condom use. The finding suggests that increasing women’s cash earning economic activity in Africa might make important contributions to increasing condom use and enhancing the struggle to curtail HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The objective was to examine the relative vulnerability of different categories of female commercial sex workers (CSWs) to HIV infection. In this study, we considered the consistent use of condoms as an effective preventive measure against HIV infection. Research has shown that condom use is predicted by several cognitive and environmental variables such as AIDS knowledge, perception of vulnerability, perception of outcome expectancies, perception of social support, peer-group comparison, and condom use self-efficacy. Therefore, to examine the relative vulnerability to HIV infection we examined the variance in factors listed above among three categories of female CSWs in the city of Chennai in India.
The study found significant differences among the three groups of CSWs on the following factors: AIDS knowledge, perception of vulnerability, perception of social support, and peer-group comparison. The study will have wide implications for designing HIV/AIDS prevention interventions, public health campaigns and policies that are targeted at the vulnerable CSW population in Chennai and other places in India.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Sexually transmitted diseases continue to be a major public health problem in the United States and worldwide, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Efforts to better understand condom use in these populations therefore remain very important. The purpose of the current study was to propose and conduct tests of a multivariate model of condom use utilizing data from 2 independent samples of young adults (total N= 1,489). The model examined the relations between personality characteristics including sexual sensation-seeking and impulsive decision-making, psychosocial variables including condom attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy, and condom use. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated adequate fit for both models (CFI= .93; AASR= .05 for both), which each explained 25 percent of the variance (R2= .25) in the dependent variable of condom use. Results indicated that those who were sexual sensation-seekers and impulsive in sexual situations tended to have more negative condom attitudes, believed that less of their friends use condoms (norms), and had lower condom self-efficacy. These psychosocial variables (more positive condom attitudes, more positive norms, and higher condom self-efficacy) were in turn found to be positively related to condom use. Results support the fusion of personality and psychosocial approaches in order to gain a broader theoretical understanding of condom use in young adults. In addition, those developing and implementing health communication campaigns may find sexual sensation-seeking and impulsivity to be fruitful variables upon which to target messages aimed at increasing safer sexual behavior.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to quantitatively synthesize the growing literature on the relationship between safer sexual communication (SSC) among sexual partners and condom use, and to systematically examine a number of conceptual and methodological moderators of this relationship. Data from 53 articles published in 27 journals met criteria for the study. Fifty-five independent effect sizes coded from samples totaling N=18,529 were meta-analyzed. Results indicated that the mean sample-size weighted effect size of the SSC-condom use relation was r=.22. A number of conceptual variables moderated this relationship, while methodological moderators tended to be unrelated to effect size. Implications for the future study of safer sexual communication as well as the importance of emphasizing communication skills in HIV preventive interventions are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite concern with sex-related topics, such as fertility and family life, demographers have rarely addressed sex in their research and theorizing, except when studying adolescents. Consequently, the models demographers use to understand fertility decision-making have operated under the assumption that “coital frequency” is nothing more than a “proximate determinant” of fertility. The theoretical position of this paper is that sex (not merely defined as “coital frequency”) is actually a key determinant of fertility and subsequent fertility decision-making. However, I argue that the influence of sex on fertility decision-making is slightly different in short- and long-term relationships; this paper focuses on the influence of sex in contraceptive decision-making in long-term relationships. I conduct multinomial regression analyses using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to demonstrate that previous contraceptive use in a relationship affects and predicts current contraceptive use in that relationship. Moreover, I show that these effects differ by the type of method used, with a contrast between barrier and hormonal methods, and that the sexual context matters for women of all ages, not just adolescents.