The Impact of Sex Ratio Perceptions on Condom Use Attitudes and Behaviors among Black Women in the United States

Abstract

Objective:Explore how perceptions of the sex ratio in Black communities’ impact heterosexual Black women’s confidence in negotiating condom use with sex partners and condom use at last sex. Methods: Using log-binomial regression models, we estimated the association between perception of the sex ratio and condom negotiation self-efficacy and condom use at last sex. Results: Perception of the sex ratio among Black women surveyed was not significantly associated with condom negotiation self-efficacy and condom use at last sex. Conclusion: Overall, the results do not demonstrate an association between perception of the sex ratio and condom negotiation self-efficacy and condom use at last sex.

Keywords:

• Condom
• Black women
• condom negotiation
• sex ratio

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to our study participants.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1 There is considerable diversity in the Black community of the United States; the population is comprised of descendants of enslaved Africans and an increasingly growing immigrant population. The experiences of Black people in the United States are not monolithic and there has been an ongoing discussion within the community about the terms “Black” vs. “African American”. The terms “Black” and “African American” are often used interchangeably but that is not always accurate and may be offensive (Agyemang et al., 2005). African American is often used to refer to Black people who are born in the United States. Black individuals who have migrated from Africa, the Caribbean or other regions of the world may identify as Black but not as an African American. National datasets often do not account for country of birth and hence is a limiting factor to understanding behaviors with cultural relevance such as condom attitudes. The term Black Americans was chosen for this study in recognition of the larger community of Black people and their unique culture, history and lived experiences of people all over the world.

2 According to Guttentag and Secord (1983), dyadic power is the notion that men and women have psychological resources to satisfy their partner’s needs, one has more dyadic power if they have more resources available to them to satisfy their partner and that their partner’s desire those resources.

3 Structural power is economic, political, and other powers that derive from societal structures (Guttentag & Secord, 1983).

4 The term Black American in the context of this study refers to a person of African ancestral origins who self-identified as one of the following ethnic labels “Black”, “Afro-Latinx”, “Multi-Racial Black”, “African American”, “African”, “Latinx Black”, “Caribbean Black”, “Afro-Canadian”, “Multi-Ethnic Black”, or “Other”.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender & Reproduction.