Knowledge about HIV/AIDS and perceived self-efficacy as predictors of communication about sexual health among college students in Tanzania

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and perceived self-efficacy on communication about sexual health among student teachers of teachers’ colleges in Tanzania. This study adopted a correlational research design. Participants were selected using a stratified random sampling amongst Grade III A student teachers from three teachers’ colleges in Mbeya region, Tanzania. A total of 252 participants completed an anonymous questionnaire with 18-tem scale that measured perceived self-efficacy related to practices of protective sexual behavior and 10-tem scale that measured communication about sexual health. Data gathered in this study were analysed quantitatively using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 15. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. Particularly, standard multiple regression analysis was used to examine the effect of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and perceived self efficacy on student teachers’ communication about sexual health with their sex partners. The results showed that participants of this study demonstrated high knowledge about HIV/AIDS and perceived self-efficacy related to practices of protective sexual behavior. However, their communication about sexual health with their sex partners was found to be very low. The data revealed that while knowledge about HIV/AIDS was not a statistically significant predictor of communication about sexual health, perceived self-efficacy was. The prevalence of low communication about sexual health among participants suggested that there was a need for examining both the content and the process of HIV/AIDS school/college based programmes. Furthermore, it was recommended that sexual health intervention programmes targeting teachers colleges should include aspects of sexual health communication and self-efficacy as part of their components.