WOMENS BARRIERS TO SAFER SEX

We examined women's barriers to safer sex and the development of a 14-item, multi-dimensional, barriers to safer sex scale. In Study 1, model testing and scale development was conducted on a population of 503 African and European American, inner-city, pregnant, single women. We found four factors that closely parallel theoretical barriers that are cited in the literature: a) partner and self objections, b) the appraisal that one is not at risk, c) embarrassment, and d) giving up pleasure. In Study 2, convergent and divergent validity data supported the construct validity of the theoretical model and scale. In Study 3, the four subscales were found to be reliable among an additional sample of 72 single, college women. Subscale means for the community and student samples differed significantly, indicating important population differences. More modest differences were found between African American and European American women.