This 3-year predoctoral request comes from a candidate who proposes to develop her research skills in biostatistics and to carry out research in the HIV/AIDS prevention area. Women become one of the most HIV/AIDS """"""""at risk groups"""""""" as every day goes by. Puerto Rico has one of the highest incidence rates of HIV/AIDS in the world. The objective of the research component of this proposal is to revise and evaluate an intervention for HIV/AIDS prevention undertaken with 240 young sexually active heterosexual Puerto Rican women in the San Juan Metropolitan Area. This proposal will focus on: 1) evaluating the recruitment/retention strategy used in the intervention, 2) analyzing the effectiveness of random assignment, 3) evaluating short term effects of the intervention study, 4) developing data analysis that relates important variables, 5) developing a data analysis plan comparing the intervention results with a similar community based prevention project, and 6) revising and validating three instruments that were used in the intervention study. This will include: 1) evaluation of the recruitment and retention strategy (R&R) using: a) data obtained from a systematic assistance register, b) two Strategy Effectiveness Questionnaires (SEQ) and c) Structured Open-Ended Interviews (SOI); 2) analysis of random assignment focusing on participants assigned to the two conditions on the basis of demographic variables and on the dependent measures; 3) implementing the intervention with one experimental group of 120 women and one control group of same size (procedures for statistical data analysis will be performed for intervention impact evaluation purposes); 4) correlational and multiple regression analyses to relate important dependent and sociodemographic variables; 5) comparative analyses between intervention outcomes and data from another community project; and 6) validating the Diverse Emotional States Scale (DESS), the Self-efficacy Scale (SES), the Power Differential Scale (PDS), and the Social Support Questionnaire with a sample of 240 women who will participate in the intervention.
