Condom Insistence measure is a 9-item measure that assesses participants' strategies for insisting on condom use using three subscales: Direct Request, Withholding Sex, and Risk Information. This measure uses a second-person story to describe a scenario and asks respondents how they would react.
Geographies Tested: United States of America
Populations Included: Female
Age Range: Adults
A stimulus story (~ 2200 words) depicted an interaction with an attractive man (“Nick”) with whom the woman had never had sex. The participant was instructed to “imagine that you are the person being described and try to put yourself in the situation. Answer the questions as if you are the woman in the story.” To enhance the realism of the experience, the story was written in the second person (using the pronoun, “you”), the participant was instructed to project herself into the story at her current level of intoxication, and the beverages consumed by the woman and her counterpart in the story matched the participant's expected alcohol consumption. In other words, the couple was depicted as drinking soft drinks in the control condition, weak alcoholic drinks in the placebo and low dose conditions, and strong alcoholic drinks in the high dose condition.
In the story, the couple watched movies with a group of friends. Eventually, they were alone together and began to kiss. The encounter escalated until both Nick and the woman were in kissing and petting in bed together, undressed, and highly sexually aroused; this part of the story was eroticized to evoke sexual arousal in the participant and further enhance realism. As the opportunity for sexual intercourse unfolded in the story, it became apparent that neither Nick nor the woman had a condom. However, the woman was portrayed as being “on the pill” (i.e., using oral contraceptives) to minimize the potentially confounding influence of concern about pregnancy. The story ended with Nick's suggestion that they engage in vaginal penetration despite not having a condom. After the story, participants rated (in this order) their perceived intoxication, likelihood of insisting on condom use, likelihood of engaging in genital intercourse despite the lack of a condom, and likelihood of health consequences.
Direct Request Subscale
1. How likely are you to ask that we use condoms during sex?
2. How likely are you to tell Nick that I would be more comfortable using a condom?
3. How likely are you to be clear that I'd like us to use condoms.
Withholding Sex Subscale
4. How likely are you to tell Nick that I will not have sex with him if we do not use condoms?
5. How likely are you to let Nick know that no condoms means no sex?
6. How likely are you to tell Nick that I have made the decision to use condoms and so we are going to use them?
Risk Information Subscale
7. How likely are you to tell Nick that we both would be safer from disease if we used a condom?
8. How likely are you to explain to Nick that there are too many sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) going around to not use a condom?
9. How likely are you to and tell Nick that we need to use condoms to protect ourselves from AIDS.
Response Options
7-point Likert scale
Definitely unlikely - 0
Definitely likely - 6
Means are computed for each subscale and used as indicators of likelihood of condom insistence.
Stoner, S. A., Norris, J., George, W. H., Morrison, D. M., Zawacki, T., Davis, K. C., & Hessler, D. M. (2008). Women's condom use assertiveness and sexual risk-taking: Effects of alcohol intoxication and adult victimization. Addictive Behaviors, 33(9), 1167-1176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.04.017
Psychometric Score
Ease of Use Score
Qualitative Research
Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework
Field Expert Input
Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing
Internal
Test-retest
Interrater
Content
Face
Criterion (gold-standard)
Construct
Readability
Scoring Clarity
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