Young Urban Women’s Patterns of Unprotected Sex with Men Engaging in HIV Risk Behaviors

Abstract

This study explored reasons women engaged in unprotected sex with male partners they distrusted and perceived to engage in HIV risk behaviors. Seven focus groups were held in public housing and neighborhood centers in the urban Northeast with 43 African American and Latina women. Content analysis was conducted by open and axial coding. Barrett's theory of power as knowing participation in change and sex script theory guided interpretation. Results indicated that Patterns of Unprotected Sex is a usual practice to maintain hope, sensuality, intimacy, strategic gain, and stability with a male partner. In low power sex scripts the salient risks of HIV were buried under an awareness of oneself as having to satisfy a man and accept cheating. High power sex scripts involved women's awareness of themselves as worthy of self care with diverse choices. High power scripts can be integrated into normative sex scripts as exemplars of more powerful ways of being and acting to reduce HIV risk.

Predictors of Sexual Scripts Among Young, Sexually-Active, Substance- Using African American Women

“…face-to-face meetings. Codes were collapsed into themes informed by Wingood's focus of Connell's TGP on the powerless of AA women in sexual decision making [44][45][46]66] and Stephen and Phillip focus on female's sexual script development research of AA women [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The research team then conducted a frequency analysis on emerging themes using NVIVO11 and Microsoft Excel software.…”

“…Stephens and Phillips' focus of females' sexual script development research with AA women explores ways culture shapes perception, expression of appropriate and socially acceptable sexual behavior, individual level expectations, and experiences of behaviors that occur in series [49] within a population at high risk for HIV [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The SST articulates the way sexual scripts provide instructions (i.e., a roadmap) for clarifying the intention and meaning of sexual cues and responding to them, which in turn informs how men and women behave in sexual situations [50,51,[60][61][62][63].…”

“…Wingood led the focus of Connely's TGP on powerlessness of AA women in sexual decision making [44][45][46]66]. Within sexual scripts of the AA women, there is a social standard where the power in the sexual relationship favors the male and inconsistent condom use is attributed to low sexual relationship power [16,49,51,53,59,60,65,[67][68][69][70][71], supporting a dynamic where the female is vulnerable to decisions made by her partner [51,64]. By making concerted efforts to better understand these social standards, researchers are better equipped to recognize diverse effects of social support and the vital role it plays in conceptualizing the influential power of the male gender on sexual risk among AA women [59,63].…”

Soap Opera Video on Handheld Computers to Reduce Young Urban Women’s HIV Sex Risk

“…It is a concern that although some women may be naïve about their male partner's HIV risk behaviors, others acknowledge awareness about their partner's risk behaviors and continue to engage in unprotected sex (Dolcini and Catania, 2000;Jones, 2004;Jones, 2006a;Miner, 2002;Sikkema et al, 2000). The literature supports the existence of a contemporary sex script that promotes unprotected sex to fulfill several relationship needs (Emmers-Sommer and Allen, 2005;Jones and Oliver, 2007). These needs include holding onto the relationship, showing trust towards one's partner, and engaging in romance and intimacy (Diekman et al, 2000;Fromme et al, 1997;Jones, 2006b).…”

“…A Story about Toni, Mike, and Valerie is based on content analysis of focus groups held with 43 young adult African American and Latina urban women (Jones and Oliver, 2007). By grounding the dramatic content in urban women's own life experiences via the popular medium of the soap opera, young urban women may identify with the heroine's emotionally charged process of change as she acts to reduce HIV risk under difficult circumstances.…”