Establishing Validity and Reliability of a Health Belief Model and Acculturation Scale for Measuring Safe-Sex and Sexual Communication Behaviors Among African Immigrants for Protecting Against HIV/AIDS

The objective of the study was to develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring safer sex and sexual communication behaviors among African immigrants. A 68-item instrument based on Health Belief Model (HBM) and acculturation was validated. The test-retest reliability (n = 30) and internal consistency (n = 412) were also tested. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for establishing the construct validity of the instrument (n = 412). The Cronbach's alphas and test-retest reliability coefficients for all the subscales were found to be over.70. The results for CFA yielded acceptable factor loadings (.30) for the subscales and overall the model was a good fit. This instrument has acceptable validity and reliability and can be used for survey and intervention research in African immigrants.