African American College Women’s Preferences for Sexual Health Intervention: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections among college students are a major public health concern and disproportionately impact minority students. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions, expectations, and preferences for university-based interventions to increase condom negotiating skills among African American college women. One hundred women attending an urban minority institution participated in a qualitative study. A content data analysis allowed for emerging themes across the aggregated data collected from thirteen focus groups. Findings revealed several suggestions to reduce the stigma that cluster around three themes including condom distribution, sexual health education, and women-centered culturally competent health care. The burden of sexual and reproductive health challenges among young adults involves the need for effective prevention and interventions.

Keywords:

• African American women
• condom use
• sexual health
• intervention
• college

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the Helsinki declaration as revised in 2013. The study received Institutional Review Board approval (#12-MED-56) prior to recruitment.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was financially supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R24DA021470. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.