Understanding Protection Intentions on Safe Sex Among Youth

This paper proposes a conceptual framework based on the Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers 1983), and also incorporates personality variables and religious orientation. This framework is empirically tested in the Singapore context to explain protection intentions on safe sex among Singaporean youth. Youths who intend to use condoms were greater risk-takers, while those who intend to keep to one partner were more religious, feel more vulnerable, and believe more strongly in the severity of AIDS and the effectiveness of keeping to one partner as a protection action. Results also showed that for respondents who intend to “Keep to One Partner”, the factors affecting protection intentions include Risk Taking, Perceived Vulnerability, Response Efficacy, Self-Efficacy and Religious Orientation. The drivers for the intention to use condoms included the additional factors of Impulsivity and Perceived Severity but excluded Perceived Vulnerability and Religious Orientation. Implications for policy markers and future research are also suggested.

Citation:

May Lwin and Siok Kuan Tambyah (2006) ,"Understanding Protection Intentions on Safe Sex Among Youth", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Margaret Craig Lees, Teresa Davis, and Gary Gregory, Sydney, Australia : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 181-183.