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During youth the habits and attitudes that will influence the adoption or abandonment of preventive sexual behaviors are consolidated. The objective of this study is twofold, to describe the sexual habits of Spanish college students and know how stereotypes and perceived control to HIV/AIDS are related to the illusion of invulnerability. A field study was conducted with 269 undergraduates, 72 males and 197 females, aged between 18 and 25 years (M = 19.57, SD = 1.82) at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid during the 2011-2012 academic year. The 85.13% of undergraduate students were sexually active. Of these, 71.2% showed some degree of illusion of invulnerability, with women showing slightly higher scores. Although students still follow stereotyping people with AIDS, non significant relationship was found with this sociocognitive variable. Sex and the stability of the relationship acted as moderator variables of the relationship between perceived control and the illusion of invulnerability. It is necessary to keep on providing accurate information about AIDS to eliminate stereotypes and design prevention programs that reduce the illusion of invulnerability and the perception of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the aim of this study is to analyse the effect of self-efficacy and perceived control on intention and preventive behaviors of cardiovascular disease. To this end, 359 participants were evaluated in an empirical study. Data were analysed using the statistical package EQS 6.1. The results indicate that self-efficacy has a positive and significant influence on behaviour intentions and on behaviour, while perception of control has a negative and significant influence on intention but not on behaviour. This work has shown the utility to distinguish between self-efficacy and perceived control in the TPB to prevent cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]