ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, Noar and Edgar reviewed a large body of literature that demonstrates that eff ective communication between partners is a key ingredient to the enactment of safer-sex practices. Th e entire corpus of research, however, has limited value in the fi ght against the further spread of HIV unless individuals at risk learn the “good news” about the effi cacy of communication in sexual encounters and have the opportunity to improve and use their skills. Th at is, it is essential that researchers and health communication practitioners take the next step and develop interventions that provide instruction on how to best communicate with a partner. In the edited volume that served as the precursor to this book (Edgar, Fitzpatrick, & Freimuth, 1992), this chapter’s fi rst author wrote a review of the extant literature on sexual-communication skills in which he included a section on interventions that featured a training component aimed at improving the ability of participants to communicate with a partner about condom use (Edgar, 1992). At that point in the early 1990s, only three such studies existed (Kelly, St. Lawrence, Betts, Brasfi eld, & Hood, 1990; Kelly, St. Lawrence, Hood, & Brasfi eld, 1989; Solomon & DeJong, 1989). Th e results showed promise
in that they met with early success, but at that point, the knowledge base was only in its infancy.
