Sexual Risk Following a Sexually Transmitted Disease Diagnosis: The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess changes in sexual risk behaviors, attitudes toward using condoms, and perceived susceptibility to fiuture STDs for adolescent females who recently were diagnosed with an incident STD compared to those who were not diagnosed with an incident STD. Adolescent females (N = 308) were assessed at two time points, 6 months apart. Ninety-two participants were diagnosed with an STD, and 216 were not diagnosed with an STD in between the two time points. Results indicated that adolescents did not significantly change their behaviors, attitudes, or perceptions following the diagnosis of an incident STD compared to those who were not diagnosed with an incident STD. This suggests that an STD diagnosis alone is not sufficient to motivate adolescent females to reduce their sexual risk behavior and change their sexual risk attitudes and perceptions.