Are young adult college attending African American women protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS? A study of sexual assertiveness characteristics

The transmission of HIV/AIDS among African American women through heterosexual sex is an epidemic. Critical themes extracted from the HIV/AIDS sexual assertiveness literature revealed that: (a) sexual assertiveness is related to HIV risk, (b) sexual assertiveness is related to communication, and (c) women with low sexual assertiveness are at risk for HIV. The purpose of this descriptive research study was an attempt to close the gap in literature by exploring the sexual assertiveness characteristics of young adult college attending African American women utilizing a valid and reliable instrument to determine if young adult African American women may benefit from future sexual assertiveness training. This descriptive study sought to answer the following research questions: (a) what do young adult college attending African American women self-report about asking information about their partner's sexual history? (b) what do young adult college attending African American women self-report about the initiation of sex in the context of a relationship? (c) what do young adult college attending African American women self-report about the refusal of sex in the context of a relationship? and (d) what do young adult college attending African American women self-report about pregnancy-STD prevention in the context of a relationship? The results revealed that on average 104 young adult college attending African American women who volunteered to attend a one day HIV prevention training scored high on the Information Communication, Refusal, and Contraception/STD subscales and scored in the medium range on the Initiation subscale. The Information Communication and Contraception/STD Prevention subscales received the highest mean scores. More research is needed to determine how sexual assertiveness training can contribute to reducing the growing number of HIV/AIDS cases among African American women.