Multiple Sexual Partnering & HIV Risks among Low Income Heterosexual Black Men

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The project seeks to understand the underlying dynamics and context of understudied and consequently frequently misunderstood social and cultural determinates of sexual behavior which commonly occurs among inner-city, low income heterosexual black males who have multiple sex partners (the target population). The focus of the project is upon the sexual behavior of heterosexual males who have multiple partners so that more feasible programs for HIV/AIDS intervention may be formulated. Heterosexual black men have among the highest rates of HIV; they are often the sexual partners of black women who acquire HIV. The project will employ the sexual scripts theory to develop a better scientific understanding of the subcultural patterns which promote multiple sexual partnering as related to HIV risk. The project has the following aims: A (Sexual Socialization): To analyze the sexual norms and scripts observed and learned in the family and from peers that may result in multiple sexual partners in adulthood among marginalized heterosexual black males. B (Sexual Scripts): To document the role of drug use/sales and various sexual scripts associated with multiple sexual partnering among black heterosexual males that contribute to HIV/AIDS risk. C (Practices for Safer Sex): To examine how marginalized heterosexual black males understand and selectively practice safer sex (condoms) with multiple and main sexual partners. The project will employ omnibus ethnographic methodology. This will involve conducting four focus groups during each of two years (N=96). Ethnographers will write field notes based on observations of subjects in households and community settings. Focal subjects (N=125) with multiple sex partners will be recruited and interviewed in depth, as well as re-interviewed. Extensive qualitative data will be obtained about many aspects of the men’s lives, with a focus on current mates, concurrent and sequential sex partners as well as the sexual scripts that rationalize their involvement with several sex partners. This will provide extensive information about how black men express concerns about HIV and STIs, and whether HIV test results influence their sexual practices and disclosures to their multiple sexual partners. The extensive qualitative data will employ advanced technologies to efficiently manage very large data sets in order to analyze and write several peer-review publications. This will lead to improvements in developing culturally sensitive messages for safer sex practices, by bringing about reductions in multiple partnering practices and HIV/STI infections among this high risk population.