Adolescents and AIDS. Female's attitudes and behaviors toward condom purchase and use.

Condom use has been advocated as a method to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. Although condoms are not uniformly popular with adolescent males, adolescent females' beliefs about condom use are unclear. To assess the specific health attitudes and behaviors as they relate to condom purchase by adolescents, we surveyed 99 adolescent females between 12 and 19 years of age (50 black, 49 white) who were attending a comprehensive adolescent health clinic. The respondents were from low to middle socioeconomic backgrounds and 85% were sexually active. A 41-item survey was developed and focused on four areas: comfort or embarrassment with menses (EM), basic knowledge of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (KA); comfort in discussing contraception with partner (CC) and risk of contracting AIDS (AR). Chi-square analyses of the four factors determined that decreased EM was related to increased age (p less than 0.05), sexual activity (p less than 0.05), and CC (p less than 0.05). Older adolescents also demonstrated greater CC (p less than 0.05). Increased KA was related to contraceptive use (p less than 0.02) as well as CC (p less than 0.02). Descriptive analyses showed that 62% of the sample reported that a fear of AIDS had influenced their contraceptive behavior, but only 17% of the females reported purchasing or using a condom to prevent AIDS transmission. These findings suggest that although adolescent females have an awareness about AIDS, their behavior remains unchanged.