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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Debra Ann Brodie, PhD, Power Play Coaching, LLC, Fisher Building, Suite 418, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI 48202, 313.927.4672, debra@powerplaycoaching.com and Larry M. Gant, PhD, LMSW, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, 1080 S. University, Ann Arbor, Michigan, MI 48109.

African American women (AAW) account for 67% of estimated female AIDS cases in the U.S. but only 13% of the U.S. female population. At the heart of most AAW's HIV risk is the low capacity for them to negotiate condom use during heterosexual sex with primarily African American men. Some women may be at risk for HIV because they unconsciously disempower themselves by adapting excessive relational stances with men. Offsetting this excessive relational stance may require the learning of new, agentic condom negotiation skills.

Few prevention programs, however, explore the psychological processes by which power or agency is cognitively constructed by women. Fewer still intervene directly on women's cognitions which drive their safer sex or abstinence decision-making processes. We studied the impact of a unique cognitive-behavioral intervention program, the Sisters and Daughters of Shebaź International (SADOSI) program, which uses a positive Afrocentric/Biblical female character (i.e. Makeda, the Queen of Sheba) to encourage women to identify, examine and modify internal self-talk which influences their sexual decision-making and behaviors.

In 2001, we conducted comparisons on the outcome measures of drug abstinence and reduction of sexual risk behaviors between SADOSI participants (n=90) and a comparison group of African-American drug dependent women (n=55) recently discharged from residential drug treatment programs (i.e. that did not have provide SADOSI workshops).

Sisters and Daughters of Shebaź participants showed significant decreases in drug use and sexual risk behaviors that continued at 3 month follow-up. When compared to non-SADOSI participants, SADOSI graduates were more likely to have continued their drug abstinence at the three month follow-up period (t=3.57, p<.05). Moreover, modest, but significant, changes were noted in sexual risk related behaviors; SADOSI program participation was related to the practice of safer sex behaviors (i.e., increased condom use [t=2.76, p<.06]), and reduction of number of sex partners (t=2.05, p<.05).

These preliminary data on the program effectiveness are limited in scope. However, they clearly suggest that the Sisters of Sheba program holds promise for decreasing the sexual and drug risk related behaviors of drug dependent African American women.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• Discuss the relationship between internal self-talk and drug and condom decision making behaviors in African American heterosexual women;
• Develop social-cognitive HIV interventions that teach women how to participate in revising their HIV risk behaviors.

Keywords: African American, HIV Interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation