Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ecological Model of HIV/AIDS Risk Behavior Among Ethnic Minority Populations

这项研究探索了危险行为的动态，特别是人们的社会背景和情感如何共同影响他们是否选择从事个人危险行为。人们认为自己在各种情况下拥有什么样的权力，他们如何应对压力，以及这些过程是否会导致他们克制或从事危险的人际行为。这项研究使用了现场实验方法，同一研究参与者在几周内每天匿名报告他们的想法、感受和危险的决策行为。这项研究借鉴了广泛的理论，基于健康心理学和权力的社会心理学，但为了充分考虑当地的社会背景或“生态”，研究将集中在特定的高危人群：亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民男性，因为1)健康统计数据显示，随着这一人口的增加，艾滋病毒感染率迅速和有增无减，2)他们经历其他健康问题的比率比其他人群更高，对造成这种差异的原因知之甚少，3)针对他们特定情况、需求和脆弱性的艾滋病毒预防和干预研究很少有研究。除了考虑个人压力和应对变量外，这项研究还考虑了多数群体或亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民社区不被接受的感觉如何影响参与者的行为选择，特别是涉及其他人的选择。这项研究将考虑资源和需求如何影响风险或安全背后的心理和行为。研究结果将传播到更大的科学界，以帮助理解社会文化、背景和基于群体的因素如何与有关风险行为的个人水平变量相互作用。此外，这些发现可能会为收集少数民族和其他弱势群体的数据提供可行的新方法。该项目的实地研究、理论和实验结果将为制定旨在减轻社会不平等可能对心理和身体健康造成的行为和后果的社会干预和政策提供强有力的基础。

This research explores the dynamics of risky behavior, specifically how people's social contexts and feelings jointly influence whether they chose to engage in personally risky behavior. What kind of power people believe they have in situations, how they cope with stress, and whether these processes lead them to refrain from or engage in risky inter-personal behavior. The research uses a field experimental method in which the same study participants anonymously report on their thoughts, feelings, and risky decision-making behaviors each day for several weeks. The research draws upon theories that are broad, based in health psychology and the social psychology of power, but in order to consider the local social context or "ecology" fully, the research will focus on a particular group of at-risk people: Asian American and Pacific Islander men because 1) health statistics show that the increase in HIV-infection rates are rapid and unabated with this population, 2) they experience other health problems at higher rates than other populations and little is known about the causes for that disparity, 3) there is very little research in the HIV-prevention and intervention research that addresses their particular situations, needs, and vulnerabilities. In addition to considering individual stress and coping variables, the research also considers how feeling unaccepted either in the majority community or in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities may influence participants' behavioral choices, particularly choices that involve other people. The research will consider how resources and needs influence the psychology and behavior behind risk or safety.The results will be disseminated to the larger scientific community to contribute to an understanding of how sociocultural, contextual, and group-based factors interplay with individual-level variables regarding risky behavior. In addition, these findings may suggest feasible new methods of data collection with ethnic minority and other vulnerable groups. The field research, theory, and experimental results from this project will provide a strong basis for developing social interventions and policies aimed at mitigating the behaviors and consequences for psychological and physical health that can result from social inequality.