Attribution Patterns, Attitude and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS on Sexual Behavioural Change Among Students of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

Sexual behavioural change is central to HIV/AIDS control programme. This study was carried out among students (n = 603; average age = 18.9) of Covenant University, Nigeria. The study was designed to examine the impact of attribution patterns, attitude and knowledge of HIV/AIDS on sexual behavioural change. Three hypotheses were raised. Regression analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson’s r were used to analyze the data. The results show that attribution patterns and attitude towards HIV did not influence sexual behavioural change. In effect, knowledge of HIV was the best predictor of sexual behavioural change of respondents. The study also revealed that there was a significant effect of gender on sexual behavioural change of respondents while there was no significant effect of age. Another result shows that there was a strong correlation between perceived benefits and all the other variables. Fourteen percent (14%) of the respondents are sexually active, 520 or 86% indicated they are not sexually active. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of the respondents do not know of anyone who is HIV positive or died from AIDS while 11% knows someone who is HIV positive or had died from AIDS related complications. This study shows that young people using the perceived benefits variable in the Health Belief Model (HBM) coupled with adequate knowledge of HIV knowledge have the power and ability to change their risky sexual behaviour. Key words: Attribution patterns, Attitude, Knowledge, HIV/AIDS, Students, Young people, Perceived benefits and Sexual behavioural change