HIV PREVENTION AMONG HIGH RISK LATINO COUPLES

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DESCRIPTION (adapted from the Abstract): In their current project, the Principal Investigator and her coworkers identified non-sexual behavioral and attitudinal characteristics of Latino men that predict their tendency to engage in sexual behavior that puts them at risk for HIV infection. In this continuation study the Investigator proposes to continue the current qualitative study of condom decision-making by California Latinas with a door-to-door survey of an area probability sample of Latino couples predicted to be at elevated risk of HIV infection. In Year 01 of the project, the researchers will (1) refine a structural model of factors related to partners' individual intentions to prevent HIV infection and the behavioral outcome in terms of the degree to which the female partner is protected, based on continuing analysis of the previous Latino men's study database, the qualitative data from the current study of Latinas, and within a theoretical framework provided by an extension of the Living Systems Framework/ Motivational Systems Theory; (2) develop parallel interview protocols to obtain the data necessary to measure the hypothetical constructs in the model and test the presumed causal relations; (3) pretest the interview on successive samples of 16, 50, and 20 couples; and (4) recruit and train the bilingual, bicultural field interviewing staff. In Year 02, data will be gathered on an area probability sample of 600 California Latino couples that include a Latino man, 18-40 years old and predicted to be at high risk of sexual infection with HIV, such that the results are generalizable to a large and clearly defined segment of the Latino population in California. Analysis of these data in Year 03 will use Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to estimate the parameters of and evaluate a set of causal models of the relationships between personal, psychological, and social context variables of the partners, relationship characteristics of the couples, partner and couple sexual behaviors, partner intentions to prevent HIV infection, and the degree to which the female partner is protected. The researchers in this study address a population showing evidence of increasing rates of heterosexual infection of women and children; they expect to provide a stronger basis for planning risk reduction interventions with Latino men, Latinas, or couples and to advance theoretical understanding of the determinants of couples' sexual practices and the application of SEM techniques to the analysis of complex couple data.