1. Internalizing Symptoms and Safe Sex Intentions among Adolescents in Mental Health Treatment: Personal Factors as Mediators
- Author
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Meredith C. Joppa, Christie J. Rizzo, Larry K. Brown, Wendy Hadley, Jodi-Ann Dattadeen, Geri Donenberg, Ralph DiClemente, Chinmayee Barve, Richard Crosby, Delia Lang, Celia Lescano, Cami McBride, Nancy Beausoleil, Angela Caliendo, David Pugatch, Ron Seifer, Katelyn Affleck, Catherine Barber, Renee Johnson, Harrison Kell, Erika Litvin, Jonathon Thompson, Gloria Coleman, Emily Hasselquist, Chisina Kapungu, Charu Thakral, Cara Averhart, Wayne Baudy, Emily Higgins, and Ana Massey
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Mediation (statistics) ,Sociology and Political Science ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Psychological intervention ,Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ,virus diseases ,medicine.disease_cause ,Mental health treatment ,Article ,Education ,Sexually active ,Sexual behavior ,Safer sex ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,medicine ,Worry ,Psychiatry ,Psychology ,media_common - Abstract
Little is known about why some adolescents with internalizing symptoms engage in sexual behaviors that increase their risk for HIV. This study tested a mediation model of internalizing symptoms and safe sex intentions among adolescents receiving mental health treatment. Self-efficacy for HIV prevention, HIV knowledge, and worry about HIV were hypothesized to mediate associations between internalizing symptoms and safe sex intentions among sexually active and non-active adolescents receiving mental health treatment (N = 893, M age = 14.9). Significant indirect effects from internalizing symptoms to safe sex intentions varied according sexual experience: for sexually non-active adolescents, HIV worry and knowledge mediated this link, whereas for sexually active adolescents, HIV self-efficacy was the significant mediator. Increasing both HIV knowledge and self-efficacy for HIV prevention are important targets for HIV prevention with adolescents with internalizing symptoms, and careful attention should be paid towards targeting these interventions to sexually experienced and inexperienced youth.
- Published
- 2014