Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Anthropological Study of the Social Ecology of Health Knowledge and Risk

博士生Martina Thomas在Jason A. DeCaro博士的指导下，将使用文化共识、和谐和生态文化理论来调查艾滋病毒风险知识和行为的社会生态学。该项目采用混合定性和定量人种学方法，通过生态文化理论建模，研究青少年的“多重世界”如何导致艾滋病毒风险知识和行为的变化，以及这些多重世界的哪些特征导致健康状况不佳或更大的弹性。多重世界是有界限的区域，如家庭、学校或社区，在那里，每个世界的内部人士所熟悉的文化含义和行为可以被识别出来。研究人员认为，艾滋病毒风险知识和行为的变化将与社会整合、社会支持、艾滋病毒风险感知以及青少年在多个世界中确定的目标、期望和价值观有关。该项目的样本来自生活在阿拉巴马州塔斯卡卢萨的非裔美国青少年，这是这项研究的理想地点。阿拉巴马州是高中生安全套使用率最低的州之一。非洲裔美国人占该州人口的26%，但2011年报告的艾滋病毒感染人数占64%。由于缺乏资源、性别不平等、伴侣同时发生以及不一致地使用避孕套，生活在不利经济条件下的女孩的风险很高。本项目将对生活在弱势社区的女性青年进行观察和访谈。该项目的一个主要贡献将是描述社会文化影响如何促进对艾滋病毒风险的认识，以及知识如何在青少年中转化为实践。这项研究将为修改艾滋病毒/艾滋病干预措施提供见解，解决艾滋病毒风险知识的差距，并获得潜在的文化掮客，女孩认为这是实现其目标的重要帮助来源。通过这种方式，该项目将帮助卫生和社会科学研究人员了解如何减少危险行为和减少新的艾滋病毒感染。

Doctoral student Martina Thomas, supervised by Dr. Jason A. DeCaro, will use cultural consensus, consonance, and ecocultural theories to investigate the social ecology of HIV risk knowledge and behavior. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative ethnographic methods, this project investigates how adolescents' "multiple worlds," modeled through ecocultural theory, contribute to variation in HIV risk knowledge and behavior, and what features of these multiple worlds contribute to poor health outcomes or to greater resiliency. Multiple worlds are bounded areas, such as families, schools, or neighborhoods, where cultural meaning and behavior familiar to the insiders of each world can be identified. The researchers posit that variation in HIV risk knowledge and behavior will be associated with social integration, social support, HIV risk perception, and the goals, expectations, and values identified across the multiple worlds occupied by adolescents.The project's sample draws from African American teens living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, an ideal location for this study. Alabama has among the lowest rates of condom use among high school students. African Americans represented 26 percent of the state's population, but 64 percent of reported HIV infections in 2011. Risk is high among girls living under adverse economic conditions, due to lack of resources, gender inequality, partner concurrency, and inconsistent condom use. Female youth living in disadvantaged communities will be observed and interviewed for this project. A major contribution of the project will be to describe how socio-cultural influences contribute to HIV risk knowledge and how knowledge is converted to practice in adolescence. This study will provide insights to modify HIV/AIDS interventions, by addressing gaps in knowledge of HIV risk and gaining access to potential cultural brokers that girls view as important sources of help in reaching their goals. In this way, the project will assist health and social science researchers in understanding how to reduce risk behaviors and decrease new HIV infections.