Personal Info

William DeJanes, M.Sc.

Doctoral Student
Centre for AIDS Interdisciplinary Research at Oxford
Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention (Social and Medical)
Oxford University
England
William’s primary research interest is HIV prevention through behavioral modification among
young people in resource-poor settings. To date, William's research has focused on school-
attending adolescents in the township of Khayelitsha in South Africa.

William is currently involved in a collaboration between Oxford University, the University of the
Western Cape, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the goal of which is to
measure the extent to which constructs of a multi-level, revised Information-Motivation-
Behavioral Skills model of HIV prevention can predict discrete and interactional associations
with HIV/AIDS-related behavior among school-attending adolescents in Khayelitsha. The
expanded model includes the original individual-level constructs of information, motivation, and
behavioral skills, as well as the extra-individual constructs of male-dominant sex roles and
poverty-related stressors, both of which have been shown to be associated with HIV risk
behaviors in South Africa. This will reveal the extent to which these young people are engaging
in risk and protective behaviors, and assist in determining the feasibility of transporting this
novel model to the unique context of South African township schools. Additionally, the study
will be stratified by sex and age in order to report the extent to which this model accounts for
behavioral variance among subgroups with potentially different intervention needs.

Thesis title: A Test of the Validity and Transportability of a Revised Information – Motivation –
Behavioral Skills (IMB) Model of HIV Prevention Incorporating Culturally-Relevant Extra-
Individual Factors to Predict and Understand Risky Sexual Behavior among Youth in a Large
South African Township.

Institutions and qualifications achieved:

B.A. Psychology, University of Missouri (summa cum laude)
M.Sc. Evidence-Based Social Intervention, Oxford University
Thesis Title: Factors associated with HIV risk among adolescents in a large South African
township. (distinction)

Peer-Reviewed Publications:
DeJanes, W.A. (in press). Knowledge, substance use, and gender differences associated with
HIV infection risk among youth in a South African township. Medical Sociology Online.

Articles in Preparation:
DeJanes, W. & Montgomery, P. Adverse childhood circumstances as predictors of HIV risk
among Black/African youth in the Cape Town Area.

Montgomery, P. & DeJanes, W. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the information-

motivation-behavioral skills model of HIV prevention among young people and adults aged 15-
49.
DeJanes, W. & Montgomery, P. A longitudinal study of youth in the Cape Town area measuring
the relationship between early adverse events and self-reported HIV status among adults aged
18-26.