Culture and HIV risk in a diverse population

 描述（由申请人提供）：尽管相当重视与男性发生性关系的年轻男性（YMSM）的性健康，但新的艾滋病毒和性病感染在这一人群中迅速增加。YMSM性行为的一个重要方面是性社会化的过程-个人获得有关性、性行为和性风险的知识、态度和规范的过程。性脚本理论提供了一个框架来理解性社会化过程，特别是个人如何从外部来源（文化脚本）接收文化场景，解释它们（内心脚本），并与性伴侣（人际脚本）制定它们。为了了解这一现象并为YMSM干预措施的发展提供信息并改进现有干预措施，拟议的研究将对160名城市YMSM的种族多元化样本进行混合方法访谈（33%黑人、33%拉丁裔、33%白色;其中每个种族/民族中50%的年龄为16 - 20岁，50%的年龄为21 - 25岁）。 目标1。检查YMSM接触到的文化场景的内容，从不同的来源，关于他们应该在什么时候/什么年龄发生性行为，谁是可接受的伴侣，适当的性（风险）行为的频率和类型，以及物质使用在性互动中的作用。 目标2.检查YMSM解释的过程，解决这些文化场景之间的差异，并将其制定为性行为，包括随着时间的推移剧本被重新评估和制定的过程（例如，由于成熟，新的关系背景，接触新的文化场景）。 目标3。检查如何内容和来源的文化场景，其中YMSM暴露和他们的解释，制定，并重新评估这些脚本随着时间的推移，不同的选择 参与者的特征;以及这些脚本的差异如何解释性风险行为的差异。 目标4：调查青年男同性恋者对性教育和艾滋病毒预防干预措施的必要性、理想内容和交付方法的看法。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite considerable attention to the sexual health of young men who have sex with men (YMSM), new HIV and STD infections are rapidly increasing among this population. A critical aspect of sexual behavior among YMSM is the process of sexual socialization - the process by which individuals gain knowledge, attitudes, and norms about sexuality, sexual behavior, and sexual risk. Sexual scripts theory provides a framework to understand the sexual socialization process, specifically how individuals receive cultural scenarios from external sources (cultural scripts), interpret them (intrapsychic scripts), and enact them with sexual partners (interpersonal scripts). To understand this phenomenon and inform the development of, and improve existing, interventions for YMSM, the proposed study will conduct mixed-methods interviews with an ethnically diverse sample of 160 urban YMSM (33% Black, 33% Latino, 33% White; of whom 50% within each racial/ethnic group will be ages 16-20 and 50% will be ages 21-25). Aim 1. Examine the content of cultural scenarios that YMSM are exposed to, from different sources, about when/what age they should have sex, who are acceptable partners, the frequency and types of sexual (risk) behaviors that are appropriate, and the role of substance use in sexual interactions. Aim 2. Examine the processes by which YMSM interpret, resolve discrepancies between, and enact these cultural scenarios into sexual behaviors, including the process by which scripts are reappraised and enacted differently over time (e.g., due to maturation, new relationship contexts, exposure to new cultural scenarios). Aim 3. Examine how the content and sources of cultural scenarios to which YMSM are exposed and their interpretation, enactment, and reappraisal of these scripts over time, differ by selected participant characteristics; and how these differences in scripts serve to explain differences in sexual risk behaviors. Aim 4: Investigate the views of YMSM regarding the need for, desired content of, and method of delivery for sexual education and HIV prevention interventions for YMSM.