The Influence of Social Desirability on Self-Reported Sexual Behavior in HIV Survey in Rural Ethiopia
Open Access WJA
349
reports of sexual behaviors in other African countries
would also be of value.
5. Conclusion
There is a relationship between high SD scores and
higher reports of primary abstinence. This suggests that
those who are more susceptible to social desirability bias
are more likely to report abstinence. This association has
potentially important implications for HIV programming
at large. Many HIV programs rely on self-reported sur-
veys to evaluate outcomes and impacts. If SD reflects the
possibility that respondents misrepresent socially unde-
sirable behavior, then the validity of self-reported survey
data comes into question, and the effectiveness of HIV
prevention programs may be over-estimated. It is impor-
tant for investigators conducting studies by using self-re-
ports of sensitive information to assess the potential of
social desirability bias to affect the results.
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