Risk Factors for HIV Among Urban African American Youth

主要研究者（PI）是一位社会学家，具有社区和社会学方面的知识和经验。 环境因素及其与城市社区青年和成年人参与危害健康行为的发生率和流行率的关系。社会研究中心，其中PI目前受雇，是朋友研究所（FRI）的主要研究校园，一个私人的非营利性研究机构，致力于知识的进步，旨在提高人类福利和改善社会中的失调和疾病。50多年来，FRI的研究人员接受了联邦、州、县和私人的资助，在药物滥用、健康、艾滋病毒/艾滋病、心理健康、预防和刑事司法等领域进行研究。此外，FRI促进旨在促进行为，公共卫生和公共政策研究的职业生涯的博士前和博士后培训经验，为有才华的研究生，研究生和本科生在行为科学提供研究职位。 Pi的长期职业目标是成为一名独立调查员。他希望将自己的职业生涯集中在开发和测试针对城市非洲裔美国青年和成年人艾滋病毒/艾滋病风险的干预模式上。为此，拟议的为期三年的横断面研究的主要目的是检查在何种程度上特定的风险和保护因素预测艾滋病毒的风险和参与高风险的非洲裔美国青年之间的危险性行为的看法。 这些年轻人目前就读于巴尔的摩城市替代学习中心（BCALC），他们因暴力行为或其他严重违法行为而被传统公立学校开除，其中许多人从事危险的性行为。一半的参与者将在第一个项目年接受评估，其余的将在第二年接受评估。参加者将是200名男女学生，年龄在11岁至17岁之间，从两个BCALC学校随机选出。评估数据将在两个数据收集年的每年1月至5月收集。

The Principal Investigator (PI) is a sociologist with knowledge and experience regarding community and . environmental factors and their relationship to the incidence and prevalence of youth and adult involvement in health-compromising behaviors in urban communities. The Social Research Center, where the PI is currently employed, is the main research campus of Friends Research Institute (FRI), a private non-profit research institution that is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge designed to enhance human welfare and ameliorate maladjustment and disease within society. For over 50 years, researchers at FRI have received federal, state, county, and private funding to conduct studies in the fields of substance abuse, health, HIV/AIDS, mental health, prevention, and criminal justice. In addition, FRI promotes pre-and post-doctoral training experiences designed to facilitate careers in behavioral, public health, and public policy research, providing research positions for talented post-graduate, graduate, and undergraduate students in the behavioral sciences. The Pi's long-term career objective is to become an independent investigator. He would like to focus his professional career on developing and testing intervention models that are designed for urban African American youth and adults at-risk for HIV/AIDS. To that end, the primary aim of the proposed three-year cross-sectional study is to examine the extent to which specific risk and protective factors predict both perceptions of HIV risk and participation in risky sexual behavior among high-risk African American youth. These youth, currently attending Baltimore City Alternative Learning Centers (BCALC), have been expelled from traditional public schools for committing violent acts or for engaging in other serious infractions, with many engaging in risky sexual behavior. Half of the participants will be assessed the first project year and the remainder assessed in the second year. Participants will be 200 male and female students, between the ages of 11 and 17 randomly selected from two BCALC school sites. Assessment data will be collected from January through May during each of the two data collection years.