Currently, the Caribbean has the second highest new cases of HIV infection, only after Sub-Saharan Africa. Women are becoming disproportionally more at risk for HIV/AIDS, mainly through heterosexual contact. The purpose of this dissertation study was to evaluate HIV knowledge, attitudes, and sexual risk behaviors among Trinidadian women. A sample of 113 participants was recruited for this study. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Purnell Model of Cultural Competence were used to guide this study. Data were gathered using the HIV Knowledge Questionnaire (HIV-KQ-18), Condom Attitude Scale (CAS), Safe Sex Behavior Questionnaire (SSBQ), and a demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed using statistical analysis software package (SPSS) version 22. Descriptive and Frequencies, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r), one-way between groups ANOVA, and Multiple Regression analyses were implemented to assess HIV knowledge, attitudes about condom use, religious beliefs, level of education, and substance use among Trinidadian women. The results of this study indicated that level of education and race/ethnic backgrounds were associated with HIV knowledge among Trinidadian women. Religious beliefs had a negative correlation with attitudes about condom use. Also, there was a positive correlation between attitudes about condom use and safer sexual behaviors. The empirical knowledge obtained from this study can be used to provide a baseline for healthcare providers and policy makers to develop culturally aware, gender-relevant interventions to decrease the rate of HIV infection among Trinidadian women.

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">In this study, the two most dominant sexual discourses were the male sexual drive discourse and the have/hold discourse. These discourses, together with traditional gender constructions, made condom negotiation difficult for women. Nevertheless, the discourses and constructions were also resisted and challenged. This study was limited by its focus on heterosexual women and the negotiation of condom use. Future studies which explore alternate forms of safe sex, sexual orientation and allow men&rsquo / s experiences to emerge would provide greater insight.</p> </font></font></p>

<p>Background: In Namibia, studies showed that HIV/AIDS affects youth, especially the under 24 years age group. At the same time the pregnancy rate is also high by age 19. Interestingly, in&nbsp / Andara district several reports from staff working in the reproductive services have indicated that adolescent girls, who would seem to be taking responsibility in one sphere of their sexual lives&nbsp / by protecting themselves against unwanted pregnancy, were however not using condoms to protect themselves from HIV infection. Study Aim and Objectives: To describe the knowledge, attitude and behaviour related to HIV/AIDS amongst female adolescents who are accessing the primary health care (PHC) services for contraception. Specific objectives were to describe the&nbsp / knowledge of female adolescents who are accessing the PHC services for contraception about the modes of transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS, to assess their attitude with regards to&nbsp / condom use, abstinence and being faithful to one uninfected partner, also to determine the significance of association between age and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, between their&nbsp / education level and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour and the significance of association between knowledge of HIV prevention strategies and&nbsp / behaviour of female adolescents accessing&nbsp / &nbsp / PHC services for contraception in the district. Setting: The study was conducted in Andara district, North East of Namibia. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional KAB study. Sample: All female&nbsp / adolescents who are accessing PHC services for contraception selected from multistage simple random sampling in 5 facilities and systematic sampling at facility level in Andara. All married&nbsp / women within this age range were excluded in the study. Data collection tool: An interviewer-administered standardised questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data analysis and&nbsp / Interpretations: Epi Info software 2002 was used for data analysis. The results were presented using descriptive statistics including means, 95% confidence intervals and percentages and&nbsp / this information was shown in tables, bar and pie charts. Cross-tabulations of knowledge, attitude and behaviour scores against demographic variables were performed. P-values &lt / 0.05 were&nbsp / &nbsp / considered statistically significant. Results: 76.5% knew that unprotected sexual intercourse was the main way of getting HIV/AIDS, 77.3% knew that people could protect themselves by&nbsp / abstaining from sexual intercourse and 64.5% knew that people could protect themselves by having one uninfected faithful sexual partner. Out of 192 respondents who stated that unprotected&nbsp / sexual intercourse was the main way of HIV/AIDS transmission, 25.5% used condom every time they had sexual intercourse, 10.9% used condom almost every time they had sex, 41.1% used&nbsp / condom sometimes and 22.4% never used condom. Older girls and those who were in higher grades at school had more knowledge that could protect them from HIV infection. Later sexual&nbsp / debut is associated with increased&nbsp / condom usage at sexual debut. Conclusions: The general HIV knowledge of respondents and their knowledge of how to&nbsp / protect themselves from HIV infection were disappointing given that this&nbsp / study was conducted in health facilities. In this study we also see that knowledge does not always translate into the appropriate behaviour. The health services need to evaluate the targeting and&nbsp / effectiveness of their HIV educational messages and develop skills that will support behaviour change.&nbsp / </p>

Human immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a major health concern in the United States, as well as globally (CDC, 2001). Certain ethnic groups in the United States have more reported HIV/AIDS cases then others. In particular, African American adults and adolescents are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. For that reason, there is a great need for prevention/intervention work within this population to decrease the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases. One prevention effort is the Youth Empowerment Project, which is an HIV/AIDS prevention program targeted to reduce risky behaviors in a Midwest African American adolescent population. A total of three hundred and ninety-four youth between the ages of 12-17 participated in this program over the course of three years. Participants were exposed to safer sex skill building, condom use negotiation with a partner, selfefficacy skills, and general refusal skills. This study examined the differences in self-efficacy of the participants and investigated the relationships found between self-efficacy and reported condom use. Participants were randomly assigned to either an HIV/AIDS safer sex class or a health promotion class. No significant differences in self-efficacy were found between the two groups. However, female participants were found to have higher self-efficacy than male participants. Reported sexual activity was low for this population, so no significant findings were discovered between selfefficacy and condom use. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. / "July 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 44-51)

Background. The study explored associations between factors derived from the application of the Theory of Gender and Power (TGP) as they relate to HIV-risk behaviour among Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadians. This area deserves increased attention, as the proportion of HIV incident cases among Canadian women—due to heterosexual transmission—is increasing. Methods. A web-based survey was administered to Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadians who were aged 18-35 years, of Middle Eastern and/or Arab descent, living in Canada, heterosexual, and in a relationship. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess factors associated with condom-use risk and lifetime number of sexual partners. Analyses were stratified by gender. Results. The study sample consisted of 157 participants, with more female participants (65.38%), and a mean age of 22.71 years. Females were more likely to have an older partner and more likely to be virgins, compared to males. Only a third (27.45%) of sexually active participants in this sample reported using condoms every time they have sex and participants reported a mean of 4.31 lifetime sexual partners. Factors associated with both condom-use risk and lifetime number of sexual partners varied greatly between genders. Among females, having low self efficacy towards practicing safer sex was predictive of condom-use risk. Among males, not being worried about getting HIV was predictive of condom-use risk. Thinking they knew how to use condoms was predictive of having more sexual partners among females, while being low acculturated from Middle Eastern culture was predictive of more partners among males. Conclusions. Factors associated with HIV risk varied greatly between genders among this sample and may contribute to power imbalances within relationships. The application of the TGP to this sample was moderately successful in predicting number of sexual partners among females and condom-use risk among males. However, it was not as successful in predicting condom-use risk among females and number of sexual partners among males. Many factors associated with HIV risk have been identified in this study, and should be used to create interventions designed to increase equality within Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadian relationships. However, many issues are discussed that still need to be addressed in future research.

This study examined contextual influences on the relationship between peer norms for condom use and risky sexual behavior among African-American men who have sex with men. Analyses assessed the moderating effects of socio-demographic, socio-contextual, and health-related variables. One thousand forty African-American men, who have sex with men, ages 17 to 25 years, were surveyed as part of the Community Intervention Trial for Youth (CITY) from 1999 to 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia. Findings supported the hypothesis that participants who engaged in unprotected insertive anal intercourse, socio-contextual variables moderated the relationship between peer norms and risky sexual behavior. Findings also supported the hypothesis that participants who engaged in unprotected receptive anal intercourse, both socio-demographic variables and a health variable moderated the relationship between peer norms and risky sexual behavior. Findings have implications for intervention, policy, and research, including a need for interventions that recognize the contexts of influence that shape African-American MSM sexual behavior and that support norms for consistent condom use in both steady and casual sexual relationships.

Background. The study explored associations between factors derived from the application of the Theory of Gender and Power (TGP) as they relate to HIV-risk behaviour among Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadians. This area deserves increased attention, as the proportion of HIV incident cases among Canadian women—due to heterosexual transmission—is increasing. Methods. A web-based survey was administered to Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadians who were aged 18-35 years, of Middle Eastern and/or Arab descent, living in Canada, heterosexual, and in a relationship. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess factors associated with condom-use risk and lifetime number of sexual partners. Analyses were stratified by gender. Results. The study sample consisted of 157 participants, with more female participants (65.38%), and a mean age of 22.71 years. Females were more likely to have an older partner and more likely to be virgins, compared to males. Only a third (27.45%) of sexually active participants in this sample reported using condoms every time they have sex and participants reported a mean of 4.31 lifetime sexual partners. Factors associated with both condom-use risk and lifetime number of sexual partners varied greatly between genders. Among females, having low self efficacy towards practicing safer sex was predictive of condom-use risk. Among males, not being worried about getting HIV was predictive of condom-use risk. Thinking they knew how to use condoms was predictive of having more sexual partners among females, while being low acculturated from Middle Eastern culture was predictive of more partners among males. Conclusions. Factors associated with HIV risk varied greatly between genders among this sample and may contribute to power imbalances within relationships. The application of the TGP to this sample was moderately successful in predicting number of sexual partners among females and condom-use risk among males. However, it was not as successful in predicting condom-use risk among females and number of sexual partners among males. Many factors associated with HIV risk have been identified in this study, and should be used to create interventions designed to increase equality within Middle Eastern/Arab-Canadian relationships. However, many issues are discussed that still need to be addressed in future research.

Young women‘s sexual health is declining. Sorority women face an intersectionality of risk for the negative consequences of sexual activity because of college attendance, sex, and age. The influence of peer communication about condom use can provide a buffer to the risk these women face. I investigated this communication through focus groups, using the theory of communication privacy management and grounded theory to understand focus group findings. The results revealed themes regarding characteristics of communicators and context of communication including communication topic and setting. The women use strategies, boundaries and rules to negotiate communication privacy and engage in comfortable communication. Additionally, the women seek to maintain a good reputation for their social group, and follow explicit and implicit rules to do so. The implication of this analysis includes improvements in sorority and college student sexual health programming and continued research on communication in social support organizations like sororities.

The purpose of this research study was to test the effects of an education/behavioral intervention on knowledge, perceived risk, and self-efficacy for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) prevention in women. Additionally, the instruments that measured knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and perceived risk were tested for reliability. Instruments used to test the effects of the intervention at pretest and following the intervention included the Sexually Transmitted Infection Knowledge Survey (Johnson-Mallard, 2002); the Perceived Risk for Sexually Transmitted Infection Survey (Johnson-Mallard, 2002); and the Sexual Self-Efficacy Survey (Heather and Pinkerton, 1998). Participants included 89-women seeking family planning services, sexually transmitted infection services or prenatal care at three county health units. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment (n = 47) or control (n = 42) group. The treatment group received the theory based STI education/behavioral intervention. A logic model and Banduras Social Cognitive Theory were used to test the effects of an education/behavioral intervention on decreasing individual exposure to sexually transmitted infections by increasing individual knowledge, perceived risk, and self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance. Significantly differences from pretest to posttest was obtained between the experimental and control group on knowledge of STIs F (1, 87) = 73.66, p [less than] .001. Test results for the effect of the education/behavioral intervention on sexual self-efficacy resulted in significance difference between groups at posttest on refusing sexual intercourse F (1, 87) = 50.18, p [less than] .001; questioning potential sex partners F (1, 87) = 15.48, p [less than] .001; and condom use F (1, 87) = 19.60 p [less than] .001; indicating the brief (30-minute) education/behavioral intervention had an effect on the experimental group. However, posttest on STI perceived risk for women receiving the education/behavioral intervention did not approach significance F (1, 87) = .02 p [less than] .901 indicating the education/behavioral intervention did not have a statistically significant effect on the experimental group. The findings of the study indicate the importance of healthcare providers reinforcing STI information during clinical encounters with women.

Any form of sexual interaction contains risk, for example the risk of pregnancy and/or STI transmission. There are a range of measures that can be used to prevent the above mentioned risks, namely contraceptive practices. However, condom use is the best method to prevent all risks related to sex. Although South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV (Shisana et al., 2009), it has been found that the HIV prevalence is low amongst students in comparison to nationwide statistics (HEAIDS, 2010). Additionally condom use amongst students at last sex is reportedly high (HEAIDS, 2010). However there are many reasons why students in particular do not engage in protective sexual practices such as condom use. The question that guided this research study was what motivates students to engage or not engage in condom use? The study explored dynamics of condom use amongst heterosexual students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. This qualitative study used Hollway (1984) and Willig’s (1995) discourses to examine the ways in which men and women relate to each other in engaging in sex, relationships and protective sexual practices. Information was gathered using two focus groups (one female and one male group) and five individual interviews. Students saw the risks related to pregnancy and HIV differently which impacted on their preferred method of contraceptive use and the ways in which they viewed condom use. Students seem to draw on Hollway’s (1984) “male sexual drive discourse” and “have/hold discourse”, and Willig’s (1995) “marital discourse”, to position themselves with regards to each other and their sexual activities. This suggests a need to redirect health promotion strategies.