Under the project """"""""Epidemiology of Alcohol: Risk of AIDS"""""""" the Investigator's goal in the past decade has been to explore how drinking behaviors are associated with sexual risk behaviors. Out of that work has come confirmation that a key factor in STD risk is number of sexual partners and, secondarily, that the context of drinking influences the availability of certain types of sexual partners and plays a role in determining the nature of the interpersonal relationship. Thus, in this competing continuation, although still tracking general population trends in disease risk, the researchers will focus simultaneously on the role of bars, clubs, taverns, and other locales to understand more fully the epidemiology of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted disease.Their proposed methodology will combine qualitative and quantitative methods and will focus on both heterosexual and homosexual populations to gain the broadest overview of risk patterns.
The specific aims listed below move from the institutional level of the bar, to the social level of the group, to the level of the individual.
Specific Aim #1 is to identify, visit briefly, and classify a range of drinking establishments that are known for and frequented by those seeking """"""""pick-up"""""""" opportunities (gay, heterosexual, and ethnic-specific establishments will be targeted), to create a typology of and choose a subsample of such establishments for a long-term ethnographic study, and to design and implement an observation study of bars.
Specific Aim 2 is to study social factors in bar culture that are related to general risk behavior and disease risk including: the social functions of participation in bar """"""""life,"""""""" the formation of norms within the social group and socio- sexual networks, and sexual partner selection behavior.
Specific Aim #3 is to study psychological factors in risk behavior including attitudes, norms, personality, self-image, intimacy, self-efficacy, stress reactivity, depression and other mediators of risk behavior and to examine the extent to which psychological factors are influential in sexual risk behavior and STD outcomes.
The specific aims detailed above will be addressed through multiple methods: (1) the use of focus groups, brief """"""""snowball"""""""" sample interviews and in-person visits to inform the reviewers of specific locales; (2) an ethnographic study using unobtrusive observation and informal interviews at a number of locales (100 bars and clubs will be targeted for brief visits and from these, 16-20 will be chosen for long-term observation); (3) household probability surveys (national and local) in conjunction with ARG's 1999 National Alcohol Survey; (4) a survey of bar patrons targeting the specific bars to be observed as well as others; and (5) in-depth interviews and follow-up with samples of individuals, these respondents will represent a range of behavior patterns from low to high risk.
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