Gender differences in HIV-related sexual risk behavior among urban AfricanAmerican youth: A multivariate approach

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use during sexual encounters, sexual partner's age, perceived HIV risk and perceived condom effectiveness were studied am ong 388 sexually active African American youth. Cluster analysis of condom use, number of partners, and frequency of sexual intercourse identified fou r groups: low risk, monogamy strategy, condom strategy, and high risk. Low- risk youth used condoms consistently and had few partners. High-risk youth used condoms inconsistently with many partners. Monogamy strategy youth use d condoms inconsistently but had few partners. Condom strategy youth used c ondoms consistently with a moderate number of partners. The high-risk group included more males and the monogamy group included more females. High-ris k males report-ed more AOD use during sexual activity than all females, and low-risk or condom strategy males. Females had older partners, rated condo ms as less effective and perceived lower HIV/AIDS risk than males. Results suggest differential HIV risk mechanisms by gender. Implications for gender -specific HN prevention are discussed.