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Year Awarded: 2008
Project Leaders:
Robin Miller, Psychology, Tina Timm, Social Work, Grace McClelland, Ruth Ellis Center
Project Description:
Young African American women are at a disproportionate risk of exposure to HIV. The need for interventions for younger women who are bisexually active and still developing their sexual and gender identities is particularly acute, as these women appear to engage in higher risk behaviors than other women. Although promising intervention approaches to reducing adult women's sexual exposure to HIV have been identified, few interventions have taken into account the psychosexual development of younger African American women who engage in high risk activity and are exploring their sexuality. For the current research, we propose to adapt a promising evidence-based HIV prevention intervention, Project FIO, for use among a population of high-risk African American bisexually active adolescent and young women who attend services at Ruth Ellis Center in Highland Park, MI. Using formative research, we will adapt the FIO intervention to be culturally appropriate and meaningful to this new target population. We will then pilot-test the adapted version to assess the appropriateness of the adaptation and promise of the intervention for a larger field trial. We will pilot-test the adapted intervention in a two-arm randomized controlled trial in which our intervention is compared to an attention-control condition. Primary outcomes will be reduced frequency of unprotected intercourse, improved refusal skills to engage in high-risk sex, and increased self-efficacy to engage in self-protective sexual behaviors.
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