A COMPARISON OF AIDS-RELATED SEXUAL RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICAN COLLEGE-STUDENTS

This article compares the sexual practices and risk-taking behaviors o f African-American male and female college students (n=649) attending 4-year institutions in a major south-eastern metropolitan area. It is a descriptive study of the kinds of practices that put African-America n college students at a high risk of contracting the human immunodefic iency virus (HIV). Overall, the reported practices indicate that the c ollege students studied are exposed to risk by certain sexual behavior s, with males reporting significantly higher frequency of risk behavio rs than females. The percentages of male students reporting they engag e in an array of risky sexual practices (including sex without condoms and anal intercourse) suggest the invulnerability to HIV apparently p erceived by this group. Although the students overall adhere to some H IV-preventive behaviors, they also violate important HIV prevention pr actices. The findings illuminate the need for designing and conveying messages for African-American college students, and particularly for m ales, that impress the realities of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) as an indiscriminant disease on this group.