Self-Efficacy About Sexual Risk/Protective Behaviors: Intervention Impact Trajectories Among American Indian Youth

Abstract

For adolescents, normative development encompasses learning to negotiate challenges of sexual situations; of special importance are skills to prevent early pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Disparities in sexual risk among American Indian youth point to the importance of intervening to attenuate this risk. This study explored the impact of Circle of Life (COL), an HIV prevention intervention based on social cognitive theory, on trajectories of self-efficacy (refusing sex, avoiding sexual situations) among 635 students from 13 middle schools on one American Indian reservation. COL countered a normative decline of refusal self-efficacy among girls receiving the intervention by age 13, while girls participating at age 14 or older, girls in the comparison group, and all boys showed continuing declines.

Figure 1

Refusal self-efficacy across waves by gender and intervention group INT13 — received COL at age 13 or younger INT14 — received COL at age 14 or older COMP — wait-listed comparison group