The Relationship of Awareness and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and Attitudes Towards Sex of Selected College Students

Abstract

The study is basically a descriptive and comparative type of research that utilized a generally quantitative, survey approach as to primarily measure and assess the general level of awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and current attitudes towards sex of adolescents. The general objective of the study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between the level of awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex, particularly among the college students. The study also aims at establishing whether there are significant relationships between the selected college students’ demography, namely: (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence, and their awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Moreover, the research is concerned to determine if there are significant relationships between the respondents’ (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence, and their attitudes towards sex. Another objective of the study is to find out whether there are significant differences between the sample's (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence in relation to their awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and their attitudes towards sex. The research was conducted at the University of the Philippines Manila- College of Arts and Sciences (UPM-CAS) located at Padre Faura St., Ermita, Manila. In general, there are a total of 434 first year college students currently enrolled for the second semester of academic year 2001-2002. From this population, there were 54 freshman college students who were chosen as the sample of the study. Twenty seven (27) or 50% of the respondents came from the Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Sciences, while the other half or 27 are students from the Bachelor of Science in Biology program. The researcher utilized the chi-square test and t-test in order to prove and test the hypotheses of the study. The research employed the Chi-Square test as the statistical tool in determining whether there is significant relationship between the level of awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex of the respondents. Similarly, the Chi-Square test was utilized to find out if the sample’s demographic variables, namely, (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence are dependent on both awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex, or not. On the other hand, the t-test was used as the statistical tool for determining whether there are significant differences between the demographic variables in terms of the two main variables, which are awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex. From the results and analysis of the data gathered, the following findings have been made: First, the result of the Chi-Square test for the relationship between awareness and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex shows a Chi-Square obtained value of 3.62 as compared to the critical value of 9.49. Hence, the general null hypothesis, which is there is no significant relationship between awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex, is accepted. The research found out that there is no significant relationship between awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex of the sample college students. Second, it is also determined that the null hypotheses on the relationships between the variables, (1) course, (2) religion, and (3) residence, and awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS are accepted. Therefore, it is found out that there are no significant relationships between the sample college students’ (1) course, (2) religion, and (3) residence, and their awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. While, the null hypotheses on the relationships between the variables, (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence, and their attitudes towards sex are also accepted. Thus, there are no significant relationships between the selected college students’ (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence, and their attitudes towards sex. However, the Chi-Square test results show that, it is only between the demographic variables, awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and gender, where significant relationship exists. The Chi-Square obtained value for these variables is 8.16 ac compared to the critical value of 5.99. Therefore, the null hypothesis on the relationship between gender and awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS is rejected and the alternative hypothesis, which is there is a significant relationship between the sample college students’ gender and their awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS, is accepted. Third, the results of the of the t-test on the demographic variables, namely, (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence in terms of attitudes towards sex reveal that it is only in the variable, gender, where there is significant difference. The t-obtained for this variable is 8.50 as compared to the critical value of 1.68, hence, the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis, which is there is a significant difference between the selected male and female students in relation to attitudes towards sex, is accepted. Moreover, the t-test results in relation to awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS prove that there are no significant differences between the demographic variables, (1) course, (2) gender, (3) religion, and (4) residence. Thus, the null hypotheses between these demographic variables in terms of awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS are accepted. The findings of the study strongly indicate that there is no significant relationship between awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards sex of selected college students. It is, therefore, concluded that awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS do not totally affect the college students’ attitudes towards sex, and vice versa. However, the demographic variable, gender, tends to influence the college students’ awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS. In addition, the analysis of the study shows that there is a marked difference between the attitudes towards sex of male and female respondents. The research found out that selected male college students are more exposed and have easier access to HIV/AIDS-related materials and information than female respondents. Moreover, it is also concluded that variable, gender, affects the attitudes towards sex of the sample college students. The results reveal that the selected female college students hold more positive views and opinion on sex than the sample male students. In general, the findings contend that gender seems to affect the college students’ acquisition of facts and information about HIV/AIDS, and as well as, their attitudes towards sex. Furthermore, it is also concluded that the current HIV/AIDS awareness and education programs of the government and other organizations greatly need the necessary improvements in educating the adolescents, particularly the college students, about the fatal sexually transmitted disease, which is HIV/AIDS.