‘Love and trust, you can be blinded’: HIV risk within relationships among Latina women in Miami, Florida

Abstract

Objectives: Latina women are disproportionately affected by HIV in the US, and account for 30% of all HIV infections in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The main risk for Latina women is heterosexual contact. Little is known about the relational and cultural factors that may impact women’s HIV risk perception. This study aims to describe Latina women’s perception of their HIV risk within a relational, cultural, and linguistic context. Design: Eight focus groups of Latina women (n = 28), four English speaking groups and four Spanish speaking groups, were conducted between December 2013 and May 2014. Women were recruited from a diversion program for criminal justice clients and by word of mouth. Eligibility criteria included the following: self-identify as Hispanic/Latino, 18–49 years of age, and self-identify as heterosexual. A two-level open coding analytic approach was conducted to identify themes across groups. Results: Most participants were foreign-born (61%) and represented the following countries: Cuba (47%), Honduras (17.5%), Mexico (12%), as well as Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Venezuela (15%). Participant ages ranged between 18 and 49, with a mean age of 32 years. Relationship factors were important in perceiving HIV risk including male infidelity, women’s trust in their male partners, relationship type, and getting caught up in the heat of the moment. For women in the English speaking groups, drug use and trading sex for drugs were also reasons cited for putting them at risk for HIV. English speaking women also reported that women should take more responsibility regarding condom use. Conclusion: Findings emphasize the importance of taking relational and cultural context into account when developing HIV prevention programs for Latina women. Interventions targeting English speaking Latina women should focus on women being more proactive in their sexual health; interventions focused on Spanish speaking women might target their prevention messages to either men or couples.

Trust, Sexual Trust, and Sexual Health: An Interrogative Review

“…In fact, trust has a central symbolic role that is a standard for evaluation of relationship quality and stability across diverse relationship structures (Conley et al, 2017;van Hooff, 2017;Kemer, Bulgan, & Yıldız, 2016;Norona et al, 2017). 20 On the negative side, trust and distrust are associated with jealousy and intimate partner violence (Rodriguez et al, 2015) as well as the STIs (including HIV) that are directly risked by condomless sex associated with sexual and relational trust (Ibañez et al, 2017). Expanding trust, recovering trust, and the experiences of trust violations are frequent themes of sexual and marital clinical therapy and counseling (Thompson & O'Sullivan, 2016).…”

The Mediating Role of Sexual Self-Efficacy on Protected Sex

“… 14 , 15 Other studies conducted among Hispanics however contradict the above findings indicating that abundance of HIV knowledge does not necessarily curtail risky sexual behaviors. 11 , 16 - 18 Given the conflicting results in this topical area, it is possible that other factors other than increased HIV knowledge alone may explain safe sexual practices.…”

“… 10 , 19 Female virginity is emphasized. The submissive nature of marianismo perpetuates inhibition of expression and poor direct communication about sex protection between partners 11 which puts women at high sexual risks. Although marianismo was associated with fewer sexual partners, it was also linked with inconsistent use and non-use of condoms and less decision-making power in a sexual relationship.…”

“…Although marianismo was associated with fewer sexual partners, it was also linked with inconsistent use and non-use of condoms and less decision-making power in a sexual relationship. 11 , 19 …”

“…Machismo cites men as the decision makers 4 , 10 while marianismo portrays women as a follower to their partner in a sexual relationship. 11 To date, no studies can be found investigating the influence of ascribed Hispanic cultural gender roles including HIV knowledge, acculturation, attitudes, and sexual self-efficacy on protected sex in one single study. Given the high HIV infection and STI rates among Hispanics, it is critical to understand how sexual self-efficacy plays a role in attenuating the sexual risks associated with gender roles ascribed in this culture.…”