Pilot test of an emotional education intervention component for sexual risk reduction

Emotions are key predictors of sexual risk behavior but have been largely ignored in theory-based intervention development. The present study aims to evaluate whether the addition of an emotional education intervention component to a traditional social-cognitive safer sex intervention increases intervention efficacy, compared with both a social-cognitive only intervention and a no intervention control condition.

Young adults were randomized in small groups to receive the social-cognitive-emotional (SCE) intervention, the social-cognitive (SC) intervention, or standard of care.

Analyses of data from 176 participants indicated that intervention arms reported similar increased condom use compared with the no intervention control arm at 3 months' postintervention (β = .06, p = .41, d = 0.08). However, at 6 months' postintervention, individuals in the SCE intervention arm reported increased condom use compared with both the SC intervention (β = .27, p = .04, d = 0.38) and control arms (β = .37, p < .01; d = 0.56), demonstrating preliminary evidence that the addition of an emotional education component may facilitate sustained behavior change.

An emotional education intervention module has the potential to facilitate sustained behavior change at delayed follow-up. Additional research is necessary to replicate findings in a larger sample and to determine the mediators of emotional education intervention efficacy.