HIV & Safer Sex: Self Efficacy

Safer sex is first defined for participants as any combination of the following behavioral strategies:

1. Abstinence from vaginal and anal intercourse.
2. Condom Use with all vaginal and anal sexual partners.
3. Sexually exclusive relationship with only one partner in the past year who hastested negative for HIV antibodies.

Participants are then instructed to rate their level of confidence in having safer sex and temptation to have unprotected sex on a five-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all confident/tempted to 5 = very confident/tempted) in the following situations.

Items used for the Confidence in Safer Sex (CSS) and
Temptation for Unprotected Sex (TUS) scales ordered by subscale.

Sexual Arousal	When I really want sex. a
	When I am really sexually excited. b
	When I am really sexually aroused. c
Substance Use	When I am affected by alcohol or drugs. a
	When I am a little drunk or high. b
	When I am under the influence of alcohol or drugs. c
Partner Pressure	When my partner pressures me to take a chance this time. a
	When my partner gets annoyed about having safer sex. b
	When my partner is insulted that I want safer sex. c
Negative Affect	When I am upset. a
	When I feel depressed. b
	When I am feeling angry. c
Perceived Low Risk	When there’s not much risk. a
	When the risk seems low. b
	When I think the risk is small. c

Note: A “c” superscript means that this item was not included in the 10-item full scale or the 2-item subscales. An “a” or “b” superscript indicates that the item was included in either the A or B alternative version of the 5-item full scale with no subscales. See Redding & Rossi (1999) for more details.

References

Redding, C.A. & Rossi, J.S. (1999). Testing a model of situational self-efficacy for safer sex among college students: Stage and gender-based differences. Psychology and Health, 14(3), 467-486.