Comparative case studies were used to explore religious congregations' HIV involvement, including types and extent of activities, interaction with external organizations or individuals, and how activities were initiated and have changed over time. The cases included 14 congregations in Los Angeles County representing diverse faith traditions and races-ethnicities. Activities fell into three broad categories: (1) prevention and education; (2) care and support; and (3) awareness and advocacy. Congregations that engaged early in the epidemic focused on care and support while those that became involved later focused on prevention and education. Most congregations interacted with external organizations or individuals to conduct their HIV activities, but promoting abstinence and teaching about condoms were conducted without external involvement.Correspondence to: Kathryn Pitkin Derose, derose@rand.org.
NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript AIDS Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 August 1. Opportunities exist for congregations to help address a variety of HIV-related needs. However, activities that are mission-congruent, such as providing pastoral care for people with HIV, raising HIV awareness, and promoting HIV testing, appear easier for congregations to undertake than activities aimed at harm reduction.
HIV-related stigmas have been seen as a barrier to greater religious congregation involvement in HIV prevention and care in the United States and elsewhere. We explored congregational and community norms and attitudes regarding HIV, sexuality, and drug use through a qualitative case study of 14 diverse religious congregations in Los Angeles County, California between December 2006 and May 2008. Data collected included semi-structured interviews with 57 clergy and lay leaders across the congregations, structured observations of congregational activities, review of archival documents, and a questionnaire on congregational characteristics.
Across and within congregations, we found a wide range of views towards HIV, people with HIV, and populations at risk for HIV, from highly judgmental and exclusionary, to “loving the sinner, not the sin,” to accepting and affirming. Attitudes and norms about HIV, homosexuality, and substance abuse appeared to be related to the type and intensity of congregational HIV-related activities. However, even among the higher activity congregations, we found a range of perceptions, including ones that were stigmatizing.
Results suggest that affirming norms and attitudes are not a prerequisite for a congregation to initiate HIV activities, a finding relevant for HIV service providers and researchers seeking to engage congregations on this issue. HIV stigma-reduction is not a prerequisite for congregational HIV involvement: both may occur simultaneously, or one before the other, and they dynamically affect each other. Strategies that are congruent with congregations’ current levels of comfort and openness around HIV can themselves facilitate a process of attitudinal and normative change.
This study explores the impact of a peer-led HIV intervention, based on the health belief model and social cognitive theory of behavior change, on a sample of African American college students. Certified peer educators were trained by the researcher to implement the four-module HIV prevention intervention. Pre-/postassessments revealed that after the intervention, students were less embarrassed to put a condom on themselves or on their partner, were more likely to use a condom, and ask their sex partner if they had ever been tested for HIV. It was concluded that peer education, which focuses on susceptibility, severity, benefits, self-efficacy (components of the health belief model), skill building, and peer influence (social cognitive theory) is an effective strategy in reducing HIV risk behaviors among African American college students.
Blackgay men must navigate identities and stigmas related to being gay
and Black, and report higher HIV incidence relative to their white male
counterparts although they report lower rates of drug use and risky sexual
behaviors. This study examined whether closeness to the gay or Black community
correlated with HIV related risk and protective behaviors. Data were drawn from
uConnect, a population-based cohort study of YBMSM on Chicago’s South
Side. The sample consists of 618 Black MSM ranging in age from 16–29.
Cross sectional measures for this study include Black and gay community
closeness, drug use, sexual risk behaviors, HIV testing and health promotion
behaviors. Closeness with the gay community was associated with greater PrEP
knowledge as well as participating in health promotion programs along with
higher rates of transactional sex and having sex under the influence of
substances, and increased odds of self-reported HIV seropositivity. Involvement
in the Black community was associated with lower odds of reporting being HIV
positive. Findings suggest that programs and initiatives are needed to help
promote the positive aspects of the Black and gay communities, while minimizing
the negative correlates of such involvements.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.