Individual Differences in Sensation Seeking and Sexual Behavior: Implications for Communication Intervention for HIV/AIDS Prevention Among College Students

Planners of HIV-AIDS-prevention interventions for college students are faced with the fact that increased knowledge about AIDS and favorable attitudes toward safer sex fail to lead to increases in efficacious AIDS-prevention behavior (i.e., condom use). Thus, alternative predictors of prevention behavior are sought. Our study is based on the premise that individual differences in the predisposition for sensation seeking may account for the failure of the college population to enact safer sex practices. Results of a survey of 315 college students show that, although sensation seeking is related to unsafe sexual behavior, specifically to the number of partners in one's sexual history, it is related to condom use only in a limited way. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for designing and implementing communication campaigns for the purpose of HIV-AIDS prevention.