The Relationship between Sexual Coping and the Frequency of Sexual Risk among 'At Risk' African American Women

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Claire E Sterk, Emory University; Hugh Klein, Emory University; Kirk Elifson, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2011-12-01
• Publisher: UTSC Printing Services, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © UTSC Printing Services, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Final Published Version (URL): http://hdl.handle.net/1807/29995
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Women's Health & Urban Life: An International And Interdisciplinary Journal
• ISSN: 1499-0369
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 56
• End Page: 80
• Grant/Funding Information: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DA09819).
• Keywords: Avoidant Coping; HIV Risk; Sexual Risk Behaviors; Women; Coping Skills

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between one specific type of avoidant coping behavior–namely, having sex to cope with one’s worries or problems–and the frequency with which ‘at risk’ women engage in risky sexual relations. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 221 African American women drug abusers in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. The community identification process was used for recruitment, with additional recruitment done via targeted sampling. A variety of demographic characteristics, background and experiences measures, childhood maltreatment experiences, substance use-related measures, psychosocial and attitudinal items, and relationship characteristics were examined for their influence both on the frequency of engaging in risky sex and the extent to which women had sex to cope. Multivariate analysis revealed that having sex to cope was a statistically-significant predictor of the frequency with which women engaged in risky sexual behaviors. A separate analysis of the predictors of having sex to cope yielded seven items that were important for understanding the extent to which women engaged in sexual coping: age, number of health information sources, amount of physical abuse, reasons for not using condoms, overall attitudes toward condom use, level of partner communication, and the amount of help available from one’s support network. The intervention-related implications of these findings are discussed, emphasizing the needs: to target younger women, to target and help survivors of childhood maltreatment to deal with unresolved issues, to make attitudes toward using condoms more conducive, to improve partner communication, and to bolster support network relationships.