Psychosocial predictors of healthy sex behaviors among African American young adults

Background: Nearly 50,000 new cases of HIV occur in the United States each year. African Americans' incidence rate of HIV is nearly eight times that of European Americans. This study is part of a larger community-based participatory intervention study aimed to address this disparity. The larger study evaluates HOPE parties, a face-to-face intervention coupled with a social media booster aimed at HIV/STI prevention. HOPE parties were developed by YOUR Center, a Community-Based Organization and implemented with young (18-24) African Americans in urban areas in Michigan by YOUR Center and the Saginaw County Department of Public Health in collaboration with the Prevention Research Center of Michigan (PRC-MI). The goal of this presentation is explore the relationships between the psychosocial predictors and mediating factors which are part of the HOPE Party intervention. Methods: The PRC-MI research team analyzed baseline data from 291 HOPE party participants. We created multi-item scales of mediating factors: perceived norms, efficacy, knowledge and communication with partners (alpha= .53-.80). The multi-item scales were correlated with single-item behavioral factors including number of sex partners, frequency of unprotected sex, drug use, alcohol use, HIV/STI testing and HIV diagnosis. Results: We noted statistically significant correlations including: efficacy and perceived norms with reports of drug/alcohol use prior to sex, partner communication and frequency of condom and/or dental dam use and knowledge with frequency of HIV/AIDS testing. We report results of structural equation modeling of these relationships. Conclusions: We discuss the survey results and lessons learned. We note potential areas of targeted HIV/STI interventions.