Influence of Religiosity on HIV/AIDS-Related Behaviors of Adolescents

Abstract

The 6th of the 8 United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to combat HIV/AIDS, which affects the fulfillment of 4 other goals. Combating HIV/AIDS depends on effective sex education and the care of AIDS patients across countries, cultures, and all kinds of boundaries. Is religion a protective factor against HIV/AIDS, or is it a barrier? Literature is divided on this issue. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of religiosity on attitudes and protective practices against the risk of HIV/AIDS in 849 Peruvian students from 52 private schools in the 3 cities: Lima, Cuzco and Iquitos. Results showed that the level of religiosity and attitudes are not significantly related, but religion did encourage protective practices against the risk of HIV/AIDS (r = .059, p > .05, r = -.156 p < 0.01). This establishes a low relationship between religiosity and protective practices against the risk of HIV/AIDS. Attitudes were also found to have a highly significant correlation (p < .01) with protective practices against the risk of HIV/AIDS.