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Remember that there are five sets of independent variables and covariates to consider:
A) Demographic variables include race, age, sex, education, and family
socioeconomic status (SES).
The set of demographic variables include: sex (female,
male), ethnicity (African American, Latino American), age (13-19), education
(years of completed schooling), and SES as measured by the Hollingshead
Two-Factor Index of Social Position (Hollingshead, 1965). SES was calculated
by rating each parent's occupation and education according to Hollingshead
(1965). On the Hollingshead scale higher scores are associated with lower
SES. SES was based on a mean of both parents' scores or whichever
parent scores were available.
B) Cognitive variables include two subgroups of variables:
1) selected components from the Health Beliefs Model, specifically:
environmental cues to action, severity of AIDS, and perceived susceptibility
to HIV.
2) knowledge about the transmission of AIDS and misconceptions
about the transmission of HIV.
The set of cognitive variables includes three components
of the Health Beliefs Model. Cues to action is a sum of positive
scores on items that may remind youths about HIV and its transmission.
Severity of AIDS is derived from the sum of responses on items suggesting
that AIDS is a severe disease process. Perceived susceptibility to
HIV is a sum of items. Benefits is a measure of positive responses
on items assessing the perceived benefits of using condoms during sex.
The set of cognitive variables also includes two measures of HIV transmission
knowledge. Knowledge is the sum of correct responses to items regarding
the transmission of AIDS and misconceptions is the sum of incorrect items
regarding inaccuracies about the transmission of HIV.
C) Social variables include two subgroups of variables:
1) classic measures of the social environment such as: the number
of people residing in the household, social support, noxious support.
2) components from the Theory of Reasoned Action such as: peer
behavior norms and the efficacy of condoms to prevent HIV transmission.
The set of social variables includes the following
global aspects of the social world: household structure which is a sum
of the number of people living in the participant household; social support
is a sum of the number and quality of supportive relationships with other
people; and noxious support is a simple binary indicator of the presence
of people thought to be unsupportive in the lives of participants.
Two more social measures were derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action.
Peer norms represents a sum of efforts on the part of friends to reduce
the risk of exposure to HIV, and self efficacy is a sum of positive responses
to items about the utility of condoms for inhibiting the transmission of
HIV
D) Psychological variables include the following measures: depression,
life events, perceived stress, anxiety, and aggression.
The set of psychological variables includes scores
on five scales. Coddington Life Events (Coddington, 1972; Holmes
& Rahe, 1967) identifies life events experienced by the subject and
significant others in the past year and for their entire lifetime.
Items included in the measure were based on earlier instruments applied
to the field of child psychiatry and relevant to the child and adolescent
age groups. The Coddington scales have been developed and utilized across
multiple socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Furthermore, events which
are commonly experienced by inner city adolescents were added to the scale.
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (Cohen, Kamark, & Mermelstein, 1983)
is a 14 item questionnaire focusing on subjective distress, initially developed
for college aged students and adults. Hamilton Depression Research
Scale (HDRS) (Hamilton, 1967) is a 23 item interview scale widely used
for the clinical research assessment of the severity of depressive syndromes
as well as an indicator of clinical change. The HDRS is an interviewer
rated assessment of severity of depressive symptoms for the two weeks prior
to interview. The ILFELD Perceived Stress Inventory (PSI) (Ilfeld,
1976) is derived from the highest loading factors of the Hopkins Symptom
Distress Checklist and consists of 29 items which are divided into four
component scales: depression, anxiety, cognitive disturbance, and anger.
Data for these analyses were taken from two subscales: anxiety and agression.
E) Problem Behavior variables include the following sets of behaviors:
sex: age at onset of sexual activity, sex with high risk
partners, being pregnant or making someone pregnant, sexually transmitted
disease (STD); substance use: alcohol use, marijuana use, general substance
use, drug or alcohol use during sex; community : arguing with parents,
committing a crime, being arrested; and school: cutting classes, failing
a class, being suspended from school, dropping out of school.
The set of risk related behaviors consists of five
variable groups. Substance Use includes measures of the number of
different types of substances used in lifetime and the total number of
the cigarettes smoked per day. A group of sex behavior variables
includes sextime, which is the amount of time that each person has been
sexually active (current age minus age at onset of sexual activity).
Drugs and alcohol with sex is a single item asking participants if they
use substances during sex. The social group of behavioral variables
measures problem behaviors with: parents in the past year and lifetime
(recent number of arguments), general aggression in past week and past
year (expressions against objects, people, and the self), school (cutting
classes, failing classes, being suspended, dropping out), and the law (committing
a crime, being arrested).