HIV Risk Behaviors and Risk Beliefs among Young Adults

HIV among young people has become a major health problem in recent decades. Despite having been discovered in the early 1980s only, it has rapidly developed into an epidemic that has caused the death of millions of people. NFHS III data (2005-06) shows that now HIV/AIDS is not the problem of urban society only but it is spreading in rural areas as well. Recent studies of sexual, drug and alcohol outcome expectancies suggest that the beliefs and perceptions of young people play a critical role in their decisions to initiate and to maintain the high risk behaviors. This paper attempts to assess HIV risk behavior and risk beliefs of young adults and also to explore the relationship between risk beliefs and HIV risk taking behaviours across gender and locale. Sample of the present study included 200 young adults (100 urban and 100 rural) comprising of 50 males and 50 females for each group between the age range of 19-26 years. To assess the participants HIV risk behaviors and risk beliefs, checklists were developed by the researchers on the basis of HIV/AIDS related literature and opinion of experts. The findings of the present study reveal that male respondents are higher in HIV risk behaviors and risk beliefs than female respondents and urban young adults are significantly higher in HIV risk behaviors and risk beliefs than rural young adults. Moreover, present paper also reveals that risk beliefs are positively and significantly correlated with HIV risk behaviours among all the four groups. These findings suggest that cognitive behavioral interventions may be an effective way to modify the risky beliefs of young adults so as motivate them to refrain from risky behaviours for slowing down the spread of HIV infection.