Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #514 - E-Posters English | ||||
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Session: 50.54: E-Posters English (Poster) on Sunday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Dr. Chisina Kapungu - University of Illinois at Chicago, United States |
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| Additional Authors: Dr. Jordi Casabona, Sra Cristina Sanclemente, Dra. Anna Esteve, Dra. Victoria Gonzalez, Grupo HIVITS TS, | ||||
| Aim: Sexual partner concurrency plays an important role in HIV and STI transmission. The shortage of eligible African American men may have the potential to affect the romantic partnerships and sexual decision-making of African-American women. The objective of this study is to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and involvement of African-American women in concurrent partnerships. | ||||
| Method / Issue: 119 African American women (24-50 years old, M = 37.78 years, SD = 6.59) were eligible to participate in a study on HIV risk if they had a sexual relationship (either vaginal or oral) with a male partner in the past two years. Interested women who met the eligibility criteria were scheduled for a 45 minute structured, computer-assisted interview. Participants reported on the following: perceptions of a African American male shortage, attitudes, tolerance and engagement in multiple concurrent partnerships. | ||||
| Results / Comments: A majority of women (66.4%) reported that they were not worried about finding a good African American man as a serious romantic partner and 55.5% felt that they had plenty of opportunities to meet an African American man. However, women (59.7%) were dissatisfied with the available pool of African American men available to them. Women (93.2%) reported that it was not acceptable for a man to have a relationship with more than one woman at the same time and 91.6% would not be willing to be in such a relationship. Approximately half (54.6%) believed that it was common for men that they knew to be involved with more than one woman at the same time and 88.2% viewed such relationships as dangerous. Contradicting their low tolerance towards concurrent partnerships, 63.0% of women reported that they had engaged in a concurrent partnership. Independent samples t-test revealed no significant differences in perceptions of an African American male shortage between those who did and did not engage in concurrent partnerships (p > 0.05). Age, education, marital status, income and single parenthood were not associated with engagement in concurrent partnerships (p > 0.05). | ||||
| Discussion: Results from this study provide important insights into urban, African-American women?s attitudes towards an African American male shortage and concurrent sexual partnerships. Although data from the present study was cross sectional and limited to self-report, results found that African American women did not perceive a shortage of African American men as serious romantic partners but expressed dissatisfaction with the African American men available. There was almost universal agreement among women that it was not acceptable for men to have concurrent sexual partnerships. Despite their attitudes about concurrent partnerships, a majority of women had been in a relationship with men who were in relationships with other women. Our findings suggest that there is an inconsistency between attitudes toward concurrent partnerships and engagement in these relationships. Socio-demographic factors were not associated with concurrent partnerships. Further research is needed to gain an understanding of the individual, social and contextual factors that influence concurrent partnerships. Intervention efforts to discourage partner concurrency will need to address the attitudes, reasons and motives for partner concurrency as well as increase awareness of personal HIV risk. | ||||
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