Psychosocial Factors That Contribute to HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviors Among Young Black College Women

Abstract

African American women are disproportionately burdened by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Though African Americans represent only 12% of the population in the United States, more than 54% of HIV-positive women in the United States are of African American descent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2003). The bulk of HIV/AIDS research focuses on prevention for high-risk minority women and men who have sex with men, whereas young black college women are ignored as a risk group. Though this group may not have some of the common risk factors associated with HIV/AIDS such as poverty, injection drug use, or low levels of education, they still engage in behaviors that place them at risk for contracting HIV. This article examines risk factors that may explain young black college women's decisions to engage in unsafe sexual practices. It also provides an intellectual context for empirically based and theory-supported interventions geared toward this population. The bulk of the HIV/AIDS literature identifies all persons of African descent as African American. However, because not all persons of African lineage identify themselves as African American, the term black in this article is used in an effort to be inclusive of all individuals of African ancestry. The terms African American and black are used interchangeably throughout this article.