The HIV/AIDS-epidemic continues to have a severe and disproportionate impact in Black communities, with Black men who have sex with women (MSW) playing a major role in the heterosexual transmission of HIV. Although gender role norms and sexual scripts appear to be associated with sexual risk behaviors, research on these factors and sexual risk among Black MSW is virtually nonexistent. Moreover, little is understood about how social structural factors such as poverty, racial discrimination, and incarceration shape the gender role norms and sexual scripts of African American MSW and in turn, heterosexual sexual risk. We propose a 3-year study in which we will use cross-sectional multi-site venue-based probability sampling to recruit African American MSW, including those who may also have sex with men, between the ages of 18 and 44 in Philadelphia, PA. The study has two phases: measurement development (Phase I) and model testing (Phase II). in Phase I, in-depth interviews and focus groups will be used to identify and describe gender role norms and sexual scripts for African American MSW. Based on these findings, we will develop quantitivative gender role norms, sexual scripts, and religiosity measures to examine how these concepts are associated with sexual risk among African American MSW (Specific Aim 1). We will also develop and pretest an ACASI survey in Phase I. Another aim of the study is to consider how sociocultural factors such as racial discrimination, poverty, and incarceration are linked to African American MSW's gender role norms and sexual scripts, and in turn sexual risk (Specific Aim 2). In Phase II, hypotheses based on the study's conceptual model will be tested using structural equation model with a sample of 500 African American MSW (Specific Aim 3). The model addresses the effects of gender and sexual norms, social structural risk factors, resiliency factors, psychological risk factors, and cognitive condom use factors on African American MSW's sexual risk behaviors. The research will make important theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding how gender role norms and sexual scripts influence heterosexual risk behaviors for African American MSW. This knowledge will inform interventions targeted to African American MSW to promote awareness about how gender role norms and sexual scripts relate to HIV risk, and facilitate the integration of behaviors that protect against HIV risk into African American MSW's gender role norms and sexual scripts.
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