The purposes of this study were to (1) describe condom use practices by divorced and separated women, and (2) to identify condom use determinants and their interrelationships within the framework of Cox's Interaction Model of Client Health Behavior (IMCHB). This nonexperimental survey was a retrospective, cross-sectional, correlational inquiry about the quantity and direction of relationships among the variables in the IMCHB's Client Singularity Element and Health Outcome of condom use. The inquiry relied on a 15-page self-report questionnaire.

A convenience sample (N = 267) was comprised of divorced or separated, sexually active women. The subjects were predominantly middle-class, white, and in their thirties, and they generally did not use condoms. Analyses included regression and path analyses. While sample size and sample homogeneity imposed limitations, the IMCHB guided the estimation of additive and nonadditive models of condom use with four exogenous variables, five intervening variables, and five interaction terms. After restrictive adjustment of a potentially inflated R$sp2$ of 59%, the explained variance in condom use was estimated to be more than 41%.

The findings indicated that the strongest effects on condom use were derived from (1) the woman's reasons for condom use, (2) the partner's favoring condom use, and (3) the woman's ability to insist on condom use. Of the exogenous variables, only partner's favoring had a substantial indirect effect via the intervening variables on condom use. The effects on condom use by (1) the respondent's ability to insist on condom use and (2) her reasons for condom use were conditional on (1) the partner's favoring condom use, (2) the respondent's history of no past sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and (3) the respondent's having STD as a reason for condom use.

An area of nursing practice has been better informed through the use of theory and its research application to a significant nursing care problem. Practice implications include use of findings to develop (1) educational, motivational, and decisional control interventions for the individual client and (2) specific programs for target groups. Recommendations for research are to refine and further specify the theoretical linkages advanced by the IMCHB and this data.