Objectives: Sexually transmitted disease is a growing problem for college students. To address this problem, health professionals on many campuses have turned to peer led prevention workshops. The research evaluated the effectiveness of four types of such workshops.
Methods: The workshops followed either an information based format or an activity based format. In addition, the peer leaders were portrayed as similar to their audience or as dissimilar.
Results: Results indicate that the Activity Workshop was more effective than the Information Workshop at encouraging condom use in the month following the workshop. Also, the similarity of the peer leaders influenced behavioral intentions to use a condom with new sex partners.
Conclusions: The discussion focuses on self-persuasion and changes in social norms as possible theoretical mechanisms underlying these effects.