The Role of Environmental Context, Faith, and Patient Satisfaction in HIV Prevention among African American Women

摘要

In the second article, Stevens et al. explore how racial/ethnic minority female youth living in disad-vantaged urban neighborhoods make decisions related to sexual debut and HIV prevention. This in-depth qualitative investigation is based on interviews from 30 adolescent girls, most of whom are African American. Grounded in in a socioe-cological approach, findings indicated that pathways by which the neighborhood environment influences the adolescent social environment and sexual decision making. Normative beliefs related to perceived peer behavior or parental expectations greatly influenced sexual decision making for the majority of the girls in the study. Stevens et al. recommended that prevention efforts account for the neighborhood context as well as structural interventions to create social environments that support healthy sexual decision making to slow the spread of HIV among young girls of color.