High school students' perceptions of AIDS risk: realistic appraisal or motivated denial?
Health Psychol
; 11(5): 307-16, 1992.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-1425548
ABSTRACT
We examined perceptions of risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 296 high school students living in or near a major urban center. We hypothesized that students with a dispositional tendency to deny threat would be more likely to misperceive their risk of contracting AIDS. Results indicated that study participants, overall, used their behaviors as a basis for assessing personal risk in the sense that they perceived higher risk when their behavior was in fact riskier. However, this relation did not hold for those students classified as repressors on a repression-sensitization scale; repressors' perceptions of absolute (but not comparative) risk were negatively correlated with degree of behavioral risk. In a secondary analysis, perceived absolute risk was found to be a significant predictor of intention to change AIDS-risk behaviors. This study provides support for a motivational interpretation of perceived invulnerability and has implications for the development of models of health behavior change.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Teste de Realidade
/
População Urbana
/
Atitude Frente a Saúde
/
Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida
/
Negação em Psicologia
/
Motivação
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
1992
Tipo de documento:
Article