Protective role of health values in adolescents' future intentions to use condoms

Purpose: To examine the protective role of health values in adolescents' intentions to use condoms. Methods: Two hundred thirty-six sexually active adolescents who were attending a municipal sexually transmitted diseases clinic were interviewed, using standardized and constructed instruments, regarding their previous condom use, health values, condom attitudes, social norms regarding condoms, self-efficacy regarding condoms, and intentions to use condoms in the future. Correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the direct and indirect effects of health values on intentions to use condoms. Results: Health values were significantly correlated with intentions to use condoms with main and casual sexual partners, and accounted for a significant amount of variance in intentions to use condoms with casual sexual partners, after controlling for demographic variables, past condom use, and constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Health values were also found to moderate the relationship between condom attitudes and intentions to use condoms with casual partners. Conclusions: Efforts to include health values as a protective factor in health behavior theory and risk-reduction interventions are warranted. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2001.