Assessing the Influence of Exposure to Violent Living Condition, Knowledge, and Personal Motivation on Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Prevention Behavior among Historically Black College Students

Abstract

Aim: This study assesses the effects of prevention education, prevention personal motivation, prevention knowledge, and past exposure to violent living conditions on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection prevention behavioral skills among historically black college and University (HBCU) students. Study Design: Quasi-experimental One-shot Case Study Design. Place and Duration of Study: Fayetteville State University; November 2012 to May 2013. Methodology: Survey data of indicators of the four Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills (IMB) model’s latent constructs prevention information or knowledge, prevention motivation, and prevention behavioral skills, and past exposure to violent living conditions (PEVLC)prevention was collected from students attending an HBCU. Exploratory principal component factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha test were performed to identify the factorial structure of the PEVLC questionnaire and reliability of the violent exposure subscales, respectively. Structural equation modeling analysis was performed to estimate the overall model fit indices and the magnitude of effects of prevention motivation, PEVLC prevention and prevention information or knowledge on the prevention behavior of the students. Results: The analysis found that personal motivation to prevent HIV infection and knowledge of HIV prevention had a positive moderate and significant effect on HIV prevention behavior. Witnessing violence with weapons prevention had a large, but insignificant effect on HIV prevention behavior. Exposure to physical violence prevention and weapon victim prevention had no effect on HIV prevention behavior. HIV prevention knowledge, witnessing violence prevention, and violence victimization prevention had no meaningful effect on prevention behavior of HBCU students. Conclusion: Collectively, these findings suggest that to be effective, the focus of HIV prevention programs in HBCUs may be on promoting personal motivation and HIV education, and identifying and treating students who have been exposed to past weapon and sexual violent living conditions for post-traumatic stress disorder.