HIV Testing Among Spanish Youth: Analysis of the Mediating Role of the Big Five Personality and Other Psychological Factors

Early diagnosis of HIV improves the effectiveness of treatments and stops the progression of the disease. The influence of personality and other psychological variables in testing for HIV is analyzed. The first part of the study is composed of 4,929 young people ( M age  = 20.45, SD  = 2.16). For th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIDS and behavior 2015-11, Vol.19 (11), p.2001-2011
Main Authors: Ballester-Arnal, Rafael, Ruiz-Palomino, Estefanía, Gil-Llario, María Dolores
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
Adolescent
AIDS
Antibodies
Constraints
Cross-Sectional Studies
Disease prevention
European Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data
Fear & phobias
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Psychology
Heterosexuality
HIV
HIV Infections - diagnosis
HIV Infections - ethnology
HIV Infections - prevention & control
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Individual differences
Infectious Diseases
Logistic Models
Male
Mass Screening - psychology
Mass Screening - statistics & numerical data
Medical diagnosis
Medical screening
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Paper
Personality
Prevalence
Prevention
Psychological aspects
Psychological factors
Public Health
Risk-Taking
Sexual Behavior
Spain - epidemiology
Statistical analysis
Treatment methods
Young Adult
Young adults
Youth
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Summary:Early diagnosis of HIV improves the effectiveness of treatments and stops the progression of the disease. The influence of personality and other psychological variables in testing for HIV is analyzed. The first part of the study is composed of 4,929 young people ( M age  = 20.45, SD  = 2.16). For the second part, young heterosexuals who participated in a broader project on HIV prevention were selected ( n  = 240, M age  = 20.78, SD  = 2.29). Only 23.3 % of the total sample have ever been tested for HIV antibodies. The main reason for not testing was fear of positive result (25.4 %). Statistically significant differences in Agreeableness ( p  = .027), Trust ( p  = .022) and Straightforwardness ( p  = .024) were found between HIV-tested and not HIV-tested youth. Trust explained 3.3 % of variance of HIV-test. Knowing barriers to testing and individual differences could be useful in developing preventive campaigns.
ISSN:1090-7165
1573-3254
DOI:10.1007/s10461-015-1084-0