This study will achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between alcohol use/misuse and HIV risk behaviors among the highly vulnerable population of impoverished women by attending to the social context in which these behaviors occur. Representative samples of women will be interviewed in Los Angeles County shelters in three Stages: 1) quantitative social network (N=60) and exploratory qualitative sexual event-level (N=45) interviews; 2) quantitative structured interviews (N=460) informed by Stage 1; (3) qualitative event-level interviews (N=60) informed by Stage 2. Study findings will inform intervention efforts to reduce HIV risk for impoverished women.
Specific Aims : (1) To explore the social context of sexual behaviors and alcohol use/misuse through two types of exploratory interviews: a qualitative interview to examine recent sexual events and a quantitative interview to examine social networks (Stage 1); (2) To investigate how women's social network characteristics are associated with their patterns of alcohol use/misuse (Stage 2); (3) To investigate associations of women's social network characteristics and alcohol use/misuse with their propensity toward sexual risk behavior, and the extent to which HIV-related attitudes and beliefs mediate these associations, through individual-level quantitative analysis (Stage 2); (4) To investigate how characteristics of specific sexual events and women's HIV-related attitudes and beliefs are associated with their sexual risk behavior through event-level quantitative analysis; and, for those event-level characteristics found to be associated with sexual risk behavior, to determine how these characteristics are related to women's social network characteristics, alcohol use/misuse, and HIV-related attitudes (Stage 2); (5) To further explore, within a social context, the patterns of relationships between alcohol use/misuse and sexual risk behaviors identified in Aims 2-4 through event-level qualitative analysis (Stage 3).
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