An Assessment of the HIV Prevention Needs of Young Minority Women

ABSTRACT

This study tested the reliability of nine scales assessing psychosocial mediators of HIV-risk and protective behaviors of young minority women in New York City. Sixty-nine age-eligible women were approached during clinical sessions, 90% (n = 62) agreed to participate, and 83% (n = 57) completed a web-based survey. With one exception, scale measures were reliable. The exception was the scale assessing frequency of sexual communication with partners. This scale did not demonstrate adequate interitem reliability for Black women. Findings provide program planners with a reliable set of measures that may be useful for preintervention needs assessments of young minority women at-risk of acquiring HIV.

KEYWORDS:

• Young Black women
• HIV
• intervention planning
• sexual risk
• scale measures

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethical approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of Columbia University Medical Center.

Permission

All participants provided written informed consent.