Shifting social influences on HIV prevention behavior among adolescents in Bandung, Indonesia: the mediating role of emotional information sources.
Outcomes: Human Immunodeficiency Virus
View SourceKey Social Norms Take-aways Adolescents’ HIV prevention behaviors are embedded within social and normative environments rather than driven by knowledge or information exposure alone. The discussion highlights peers as important normative reference points who can influence perceived acceptability, social modeling, and prevention decisions. In Indonesia, norms surrounding sexuality, modesty, authority, and propriety may constrain open communication with adults and shift adolescents toward peers and digital environments for HIV information. However, the influence of these sources appears to depend substantially on whether information is emotionally credible and personally meaningful.
Objectives To examine the relative roles of teachers, peers, and online information in shaping HIV prevention behavior among adolescents in urban Indonesia and determine whether emotionally salient information mediates these relationships.
Methods This quantitative, cross-sectional correlational study included 390 students aged 15–19 years from a public senior high school, recruited using classroom-based cluster sampling. Measures assessed teacher influence, peer influence, online HIV-information exposure, emotionally salient HIV information, HIV knowledge, and HIV prevention behavior. Social influences relevant to norms included a 10-item measure of peers as information sources and social-cognitive influences on prevention decisions and a 7-item measure of teachers’ prevention-related guidance. Emotional information was assessed through exposure to narratives, testimonials, vivid or story-based content, and messages eliciting empathy, fear, concern, or personal relevance. Analyses included correlations, hierarchical regression controlling for age and sex, and bootstrapped mediation analyses.
Results Adolescents reported moderate HIV prevention behavior and relatively low HIV knowledge. Emotional information was the strongest positive predictor of prevention behavior, while teacher influence was negatively associated with behavior and online information exposure was not significant; the final model explained 10.9% of variance. Emotional information significantly mediated associations between both teacher and peer influence and prevention behavior, with a larger indirect effect for peers; no significant indirect effect occurred for online exposure.
Conclusions HIV prevention behavior appears to depend less on the quantity of information adolescents encounter than on how information is emotionally processed within social relationships. Prevention strategies should combine accurate information with emotionally engaging, culturally grounded, relationship-centered approaches and strengthen teachers and peers as facilitators of meaningful dialogue rather than relying primarily on didactic education or digital information exposure.
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