How black heterosexual men’s narratives about sexual partner type and condom use disrupt the main and casual partner dichotomy: ‘we still get down, but we not together’

Abstract

Sexual partner types and partnership dynamics have important implications for condom use. Yet most HIV prevention research conceptualises condom use as individual-level rather than dyadic-level behaviour. Evidence of a generalised HIV epidemic in urban predominantly low-income US Black heterosexual communities highlights the need for a culturally and contextually-grounded understanding of partner types, partnership dynamics and condom use from the perspective of Black heterosexual men. We conducted individual interviews with 30 self-identified men between the ages of 18 and 44, 18 (60%) of whom reported at least two partner types in the last 6 months. Key findings include: (1) ‘main and casual’ partner types per the HIV prevention literature; (2) three casual-partner subtypes: primary, recurrent, and one-time casuals; (3) overlapping partnership dynamics between main partners, primary-casual partners and recurrent-casual partners, but not one-time casual partners; and (4) consistent condom use reported for one-time casual partners only. The study underscores the critical need for more condom promotion messages and interventions that reflect the dyadic and culturally-grounded realities of US Black heterosexual men’s sexual partner types and partnership dynamics.

Keywords:

• black men
• condoms
• relationships
• HIV prevention
• sex

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for participants’ trust and candour, which were invaluable to this work. We thank the research assistants who contributed to this work: Zupenda Davis, Sheba King, Whitney Hewlett, Maritza Pedlar and Jessica Mandell. We are especially grateful to Joseph P. Smith, Team Represent’s unofficial and honorary urban Black heterosexual man, with whom we consulted about our interpretations, and who provided feedback on multiple drafts of Figure 1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a US National Institutes of Health/National Institutes of Child Health and Development grant to Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D. (5R01HD054319-03).