AIDS education for college students: review and proposal for a research-based curriculum.

The history of AIDS education for college students in the U.S. is reviewed. Wide agreement concerning the goals and overall content of the AIDS-education curriculum is found. However, the context and location of AIDS education within the curriculum vary considerably. Increased knowledge about AIDS is a frequent outcome, but improvements in attitude and reported sexual behaviors are more difficult to achieve. The conceptual frameworks used in AIDS education include the health belief model, social learning theory, and theory of reasoned action; each has contributed to the design of an AIDS-prevention curriculum. A proposed research-based AIDS-education curriculum would utilize the theory of planned behavior from attitude research, the elaboration likelihood model from persuasion research, and the conceptual change model from science education research.