Promoting Condom Use Among African American Males

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Educating young people with theoretically-driven HIV/STD prevention programs has been relatively effective in reducing the unintended consequences associated with unprotected sexual intercourse (e.g., HIV/STD infections, infertility, psychosocial factors, economic burden, etc.). However, less is known about the development and/or adaptation of male-focused condom promoting programs. As a result, a targeted strategy that proposes to identify the processes associated with condom use barriers and facilitators, especially among at-risk urban minority male populations from low income communities, has the potential to positively influence the development of a relevant male-centered HIV/STD risk reduction program. Therefore, the specific aim of this proposed R21 developmental/exploratory study is to develop a brief male-centered condom promoting intervention program in order to encourage condom use among young urban African American males, based on social cognitive theory and the stages of change model, and to pilot the resultant intervention. To achieve this goal, we propose to conduct a series of focus groups among the target population-to be recruited from selected health clinics on Chicago's South Side-to better understand the dynamics and processes associated with effective condom use (e.g., condom use barriers and facilitators) in order to guide the development of this proposed brief intervention. Furthermore, in order to assess the potential short-term benefit of this new brief intervention program on the target population, we also propose to conduct a six-month longitudinal pilot study based on a random assignment of study participants to program conditions (i.e., intervention or control). Specifically, the feasibility of program administration (i.e., study methods, study population, program settings, collaborating partners, etc.) will be informed by the current and previous research experience of the study team in conducting HIV/STD prevention-related projects among similar high sexual risk seeking populations. Finally, we expect to share the proposed study findings with local stakeholders, disseminate the results through appropriate professional outlets such as conferences and publications, and use the data to develop an R01 application in order to test the long term efficacy of this new condom promoting program.