title: Enhancing cultural and contextual intervention strategies to reduce HIV/AIDS among African Americans.
abstract: I describe 4 protective strategies that African Americans employ that may challenge current HIV prevention efforts: (1) an adaptive duality that protects identity, (2) personal control influenced by external factors, (3) long-established indirect communication patterns, and (4) a mistrust of "outsiders." I propose the Sexual Health Model as a conceptual framework for HIV prevention interventions because it incorporates established adaptive coping strategies into new HIV-related protective skills. The Sexual Health Model promotes interconnectedness, sexual ownership, and body awareness, 3 concepts that represent the context of the African American historical and cultural experience and that enhance rather than contradict future prevention efforts.
authors.affiliation: Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1759, USA. gwyatt@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Gail E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Wyatt
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control; D001741:Black or African American; D054521:Cultural Competency; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012725:Sexual Behavior