Awareness of an AIDS campaign directed at Norwegian adolescents

Awareness of a condom campaign directed at Norwegian adolescents was studied in terms of individual characteristics and social processes. The material comprised a representative sample of 3000 Norwegians aged 17 through 19 years. The response rate was 60.9%. Data were collected by self-administered, anonymous, questionnaires. The campaign consisted of five different elements. The awareness of the elements varied between 50% and 9%. Forty-eight percent reported awareness of at least one element. Six background variables included in a multiple regression model explained only 6% of the variance in awareness of the campaign. In order to illustrate social processes leading to awareness of the campaign, a path model was constructed. Coitus experience, educational aspirations and sex seemed to influence awareness of the campaign through three different paths, in which IPC was included in each path as a intervening variable. Thus, through indirect processes, IPC was mediating the main effects of the three independent variables on awareness. IPC served as a mediating variable between personal characteristics and awareness of the campaign. The results from this study indicate that increasing the adolescents' ability to communicate about sexual topics, are important educational tasks for future prevention of HIV/AIDS.