This article sets out to study the dimensionality of adolescents' knowledge of HIV transmission by contrasting a two-factor and a one-factor model using confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL). The empirical data stem from a longitudinal study on health behaviour in Norway. This study uses cross-sectional data of the same subjects in 1990 with mean age 13.3 (n = 927) and 1992 ( n = 974). The respondents were confronted with 12 items describing different types of risky situations and asked whether HIV could be transmitted in these situations. The two-factor model provided a significantly better fit to the empirical data than did the one-factor model, suggesting that knowledge of how HIV is transmitted is distinct from knowledge of how HIV is not transmitted. Several explanations for this difference are suggested, and implications for constructing health- education messages are discussed.
Bishop, G.D. (1991). Lay disease representations and responses to victims of disease. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 12, 115-132.
2.
Bishop, G.D., Alva, A.L., Cantu, L., & Rittiman, T.K. (1991). Responses to persons with AIDS: Fear of contagion or stigma? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 1877-1888.
3.
Breckler, S.J. (1990). Applications of covariance structure modelling in psychology: Cause for concern? Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 260-273.
4.
Dab, W., Moatti, J.P., Bastide, S., Abenheim, L., & Brunet, J.B. (1989). Misconceptions about transmission of AIDS and attitudes toward prevention in the French public. AIDS, 3, 443-447.
5.
Gentry, E.M., Salomon, C.T., Wooten, K.G., & Jason, J.M. (1993). Using indices to differentiate dimensions of knowledge regarding modes of HIV transmission in the US. population, 1987-1989. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, 6(1), 76-81.
6.
Herek, G.M., & Glunt, E.K. (1991). AIDS-related attitudes in the United States: A preliminary conceptualization. Journal of Sex Research, 28(1), 99-123.
7.
Jakobsen, R., Rise, J., Aas, H., & Anderssen, N. (in press). Noncoital sexual interactions and problem behaviour among young adolescents. Journal of Adolescence.
8.
Jøreskog, K.G., & Sörbom, D. (1988). PRELIS: A preprocessor for LISREL (2nd ed). Mooresville, IN: Scientific Software.
9.
Jøreskog, K.G., & Sörbom, D. (1989). LISREL 7: A guide to the program and applications . (2nd ed). Chicago, IL: SPSS.
10.
Kraft, P. (1992). Public knowledge of AIDS in Norway 1986-1989. Health Education Research, 7,21-30.
11.
Kraft, P. (1993). AIDS prevention in Norway. Empirical studies on diffusion of knowledge, public opinion, and sexual behaviour (Doctoral dissertation, University of Bergen, Norway , 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International , 54(02), 536C.
12.
Miller, H.G., Turner, C.F., & Moses, L.E. (1990). Aids and adolescents. In H. G. Miller, C. F. Tuner, & L. E. Moses (Eds.), AIDS The second decade (pp. 147-252). Washington DC: National Academy Press.
13.
Mondragòn, D., Kirkman-Liff, B., & Schneller, E.S. (1991). Hostility to people with AIDS: Risk perception and demographic factors. Social Science and Medicine, 32, 1137-1142.
14.
Petty, R. E., Ostrom, T. E., & Brock, T. C. (Eds.) (1981). Cognitive responses in persuasion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
15.
Rise, J., & Jakobsen, R. (1995). Organization of HIV/AIDS related attitudes and predictors of attitudes. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine , 23(3), 202-208.
16.
Rise, J., & Kraft, P. (1992). Endringer i befolkningens reaksjoner på HIV/AIDS epidemien 1986-1991 og kunnskap om andre seksuelt overførbare sykdommer 1991 . HEMIL-Rapport, nr.1.
17.
Rise, J., & Kraft, P. (1995). Attitudes related to HIV/ AIDS-policies: Are they instrumental or symbolic? In J. Rodrigues-Marín (Ed.), Health Psychology and Quality of Life ResearchProceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society. (pp. 989-996). Alicante, Spain.
18.
Slovic, P., Fischoff, B., & Lichtenstein, S. (1986). The psychometric study of risk perception. In V. T. Covello, J. Menkes, & J. Mumpower (Eds.), Risk evaluation and management (pp. 3-24). New York: Plenum.
19.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristics for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 207-232.
20.
Vlek, C., & Stallen, P. (1980). Rational and personal aspects of risk. Acta Psychologica, 45, 273-300.
21.
Welch Cline, R.J., & Johnson, S.J. (1992). Mosquitoes, doorknobs, & sneezing: Relationships between homophobia and AIDS mythology among college students. Health Communication, 4, 273-289.
22.
Winslow, R.W., Rumbaut, R.G., & Hwang, J. (1989). AIDS, FRAIDS, and quarantine: Student responses to pro-quarantine initiatives in California. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19, 1453-1478.
23.
Witte, K. (1995). Generating effective risk messages: How scary should your risk communication be? In B. R. Burleson (Ed.), Communication yearbook 18 (pp. 229-254). London: Sage.
