Audrey K. Bangi

Collaborative Process Evaluation: Enhancing Community Relevance and Cultural Appropriateness in HIV Prevention

Abstract Process evaluations provide multiple opportunities to improve prevention and intervention programs that benefit communities experiencing oppression and marginalization. In order to thwart the negative effects of power and privilege, it is essential that collaborative partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs) incorporate the voices, experiences, and skills of community members. This article presents a process evaluation that was collaboratively developed and implemented by a team consisting of members from an HIV/AIDS-related CBO and a university. The process evaluation was guided by an empowerment evaluation theoretical framework and utilized elements of narrative ethnography. The methods for the evaluation were developed to ensure cultural appropriateness, community sensitivity, and scientific rigor. Modifications made to the CBOs HIV prevention programs for Latina female adolescents and gay/bisexual/questioning Latino and African-American male adolescents incorporated specific social, cultural, and environmental factors that impact HIV risk. The multiple benefits gained by those involved in the evaluation are detailed and emphasize the importance of conducting collaborative process evaluations when developing interventions for oppressed and marginalized communities.

Predictors of African American Adolescent Sexual Activity: An Ecological Framework

The present study identified predictors of African American adolescent sexual activity. An ecological model of personal, familial, and extrafamilial risk factors was proposed. Forty-eight female and 53 male African American adolescents participated. Hierarchical logistic regression and structural equation modeling found some support for the model. Risk factors were found at each level of the adolescents social ecology and explained over 80% of the variance in sexual activity. Being older, male, having low parental monitoring, using drugs, and having friends that used drugs decreased the probability of being a virgin. Virgins also expected to live 10 years longer than nonvirgins. It was suggested that fathers and community members should take a more active role in adolescents lives to curb the threat of HIV/AIDS and other STDs in the African American community.

Perspectives of Community Partners and Researchers About Factors Impacting Coalition Functioning Over Time

This study explored organizational and contextual factors impacting coalition functioning across 15 community–researcher coalitions that were formed to lower rates of HIV among youth. Mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) longitudinal data were collected from both community partners and researchers across three time points, and were analyzed to assess factors associated with initial coalition development and functioning. Specific facilitators of coalition functioning over time included developing group trust and cohesion, creating diverse coalition membership, developing a shared vision, and ensuring clarity of coalition purpose and goals. Specific barriers to coalition functioning over time included experiencing a lack of clarity over member roles and responsibilities, balancing power/resource dynamics between researchers and community partners, balancing coalition building and coalition pace, and experiencing HIV/AIDS-related stigma. Recommendations are offered for how to develop and sustain successful community–researcher coalitions over time in order to address relevant social issues.

Connect to Protect® Researcher-Community Partnerships: Assessing Change in Successful Collaboration Factors over Time

Fifteen research sites within the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions launched Connect to Protect community coalitions in urban areas across the United States and in Puerto Rico. Each coalition has the same overarching goal: Reducing local youth HIV rates by changing community structural elements such as programs, policies, and practices. These types of transformations can take significant amounts of time to achieve; thus, ongoing successful collaboration among coalition members is critical for success. As a first step toward building their coalitions, staff from each research site invited an initial group of community partners to take part in Connect to Protect activities. In this paper, we focus on these researcher-community partnerships and assess change in collaboration factors over the first year. Respondents completed the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory at five time points, approximately once every two to three months. Results across all fifteen coalitions show significant and positive shifts in ratings of process/structure (p<.05). This suggests that during the first year they worked together, Connect to Protect researcher-community partners strengthened their group infrastructures and operating procedures. The findings shed light on how collaboration factors evolve during coalition formation and highlight the need for future research to examine change throughout subsequent coalition phases.

Influences on Sexual Partnering Among African American Adolescents With Concurrent Sexual Relationships

Adolescents often engage in concurrent sexual partnerships as part of a developmental process of gaining experience with sexuality. The authors qualitatively examined patterns of concurrency and variation in normative and motivational influences on this pattern of sexual partnering among African American adolescents (31 males; 20 females), ages 15 to 17 years. Using content analysis, gender and contextual differences in social norms and motivations for concurrency were explored. Findings describe the normative influences on adolescent males and females with regard to sexual concurrency and the transfer of these norms from one generation to the next.

Female adolescents and older male sex partners: HIV associated risk

This article focuses on the HIV infection risk associated with sexual relationships between female adolescents and older men. Unlike adult populations it is noted that HIV and AIDS affect female adolescents at equal or greater rates than male adolescents. A study on sexual behavior among sixth graders revealed that being in a dating relationship with a partner 2 or more years older was associated with early sexual onset and unwanted sexual activity. These younger female adolescents who engage in sexual activity with an older man are at increased risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections owing to lower rates of contraceptive use. It has been proposed that older male sexual partners pose an increased risk to female adolescents in terms of HIV risk as compared to younger men. Hence health practitioners researchers and interventionists must be aware of the HIV/AIDS risk associated with sexual intercourse between adolescent females and older male partners.

Psychosocial Outcomes of Sexual Risk Reduction in a Brief Intervention for Urban African American Female Adolescents.

The authors describe psychosocial outcomes of a group randomized controlled trial of a friendship-based HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention intervention grounded in the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM). A total of 264 African American adolescent girls were randomized to a single-session Project ÒRÉ HIV/STI prevention intervention or a nutrition/exercise health promotion intervention with their friendship group. At posttest, Project ÒRÉ participants scored higher on knowledge of HIV/STI prevention and protection (p < .01), knowledge of living with HIV/STI (p < .01), perceived HIV risk (p < .05), perceived STI risk (p < .01), and intentions to use condoms for vaginal sex (p < .05). Findings suggest that a brief friendship-based HIV/STI prevention intervention for youth can impact ARRM factors that increase the ability to recognize and label risky sexual behaviors as problematic and promote commitment to changing high-risk behaviors.

Social Activists: Lessons for Community Psychology

In a graduate class in community psychology, each student studied the lives and achievements of social activists. This article integrates the work and accomplishments of 5 social activists into a conceptual and methodological framework for social change within community psychology. These activists worked on issues including national liberation, womens suffrage, the rights of migrant workers, and community development. The methods used by these activists are particularly relevant to the field of community psychology. The article discusses the implications of the work and accomplishments of these social change agents.