Postdoctoral Fellow, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta.
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2019 Mar;51(1):17-25. doi: 10.1363/psrh.12085. Epub 2019 Jan 16.
Black females in the United States disproportionately suffer from STDs, including HIV. Understanding the sociocultural conditions that affect their risk is essential to developing effective and culturally relevant prevention programs.
In 2016-2017 in Madison, Wisconsin, 20 black females aged 19-62 completed interviews that explored the sociocultural conditions associated with sexual development and STD/HIV risk. Interviews were guided by grounded theory; open, axial and selective coding and constant comparative analysis were used to identify developmental phases and relevant sociocultural conditions.
Three phases of becoming a sexual black woman were identified: Girl, when participants reported beginning to understand their sexuality; Grown, marking a transition to adulthood, when participants began to feel more self-sufficient yet still grappled with their emerging sexuality; and Woman, when participants developed a strong sense of self and took ownership of their bodies. Two sociocultural conditions affected progression through these phases: stereotype messaging and protection (both self-protection and protecting others). Negative life events (e.g., sexual trauma) and early sexualization reportedly affected sexual development, and STD experience influenced self-perceptions of sexuality and sexual behavior, often leading to self-protective behaviors. Older participants reported strategies to protect young black females from negative sexual experiences.
Interventions at multiple levels of the social ecology throughout the life course may help reduce STD/HIV risk among black women in the United States. Future research should include examination of the experiences of black females younger than 18 and evaluation of the protective strategies employed by older black females.
美国的黑人女性不成比例地患有性传播疾病，包括艾滋病毒。了解影响她们风险的社会文化条件对于制定有效和文化相关的预防计划至关重要。
2016-2017 年，在威斯康星州麦迪逊市，20 名年龄在 19-62 岁的黑人女性完成了访谈，探讨了与性发展和性传播疾病/艾滋病毒风险相关的社会文化条件。访谈以扎根理论为指导；使用开放式、轴向和选择性编码以及恒定性比较分析来确定发展阶段和相关社会文化条件。
确定了成为一名有性行为的黑人女性的三个阶段：女孩，当参与者报告开始理解自己的性行为时；成年，标志着向成年的过渡，当参与者开始感到更自给自足但仍在努力应对自己新兴的性行为时；和女人，当参与者发展出强烈的自我意识并拥有自己的身体时。两个社会文化条件影响了这些阶段的进展：刻板印象信息和保护（自我保护和保护他人）。负面生活事件（例如，性创伤）和早期的性化据说会影响性发展，性传播疾病的经历会影响对性的自我认知和性行为，通常会导致自我保护行为。年长的参与者报告了保护年轻黑人女性免受负面性经历的策略。
在整个生命周期中，在社会生态系统的多个层面上进行干预，可能有助于降低美国黑人女性的性传播疾病/艾滋病毒风险。未来的研究应该包括对 18 岁以下黑人女性的经历进行检查，并评估年长黑人女性所采用的保护策略。
