Group Activity: The Game
Developed by Donnovan Somera Yisrael and Carolyn Laub for the MidPeninsula YWCA, 1998.
Objective: To enable participants to see and critique the complex system of values and rules that regulate our sexual behavior.
Minimum Time: 45 minutes
Click here to download a detailed guide for this activity.

Group Activity: Gender Role Play: What’s Going On?
Adapted from Exercise 11 in Gender or Sex: Who Cares? Skills-building Resource Pack on Gender and Reproductive Health for Adolescents and Youth Workers (de Bruyn, 2001).
Objective: To guide participants through an analysis of situations involving gender norms, relationships, and sex, and to encourage them to think of ways to reduce possible risks.
Minimum Time: 30 minutes
Click here to download a detailed guide for this activity.

 

Biological Risk

Sexually Transmitted Infections & HIV/AIDS
Fleming, D.T. & Wasserheit, J.N. From epidemiological synergy to public health policy and practice: The contribution of other sexually transmitted diseases to sexual transmission of HIV infection. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 75(1):3-17, 1999.
This article reviews the scientific data on the role of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in sexual transmission of HIV infection, and discusses the implications of these findings for HIV and STI/STD prevention policy and practice.

Behavioral Risk Factors

Sex and Drugs and the Virus
Ostrow, D.G. Sex and Drugs and the Virus. In The Emergence of AIDS: The Impact on Immunology, Microbiology, and Public Health, K.H. Mayer & H.F. Pizer (eds.). Washington, D.C.: American Public Health Association, 2000.
In the early 1980’s, the idea that drugs alone, apart from needle sharing, played a role in the transmission of HIV was not popularly accepted. Drug users and gay men were viewed as separate populations. Since then, nonintravenous “recreational” drug use has become well recognized as a significant factor in the homosexual transmission of HIV and other STDs. This chapter reviews the history of sex-drug research during the US HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Psychological Risk Factors

Psychosocial Predictors of Risky Sexual Behaviors
Myers, H.F., Javanbakht, M., Martinez, M., & Obediah, S. Psychosocial predictors of risky sexual behaviors in African American men: implications for prevention. AIDS Education and Prevention, 15(1 Suppl A):66-79, 2003.
Psychosocial predictors of sexual risk taking were investigated in a community sample of HIV-positive and HIV-negative African American men enrolled in the African American Health Project. HIV-negative men, men who have sex with men and women (MSM/W), and men who have sex with men (MSM) engaged in more high-risk sexual behaviors than heterosexuals and HIV-positive men, but men who were HIV-positive carried a heavier burden of psychosocial risk factors. High psychological distress, being HIV-negative, older age, low socioeconomic status (SES), and being an MSM/W were the best predictors of sexual risk. Results confirm previous findings of riskier sexual lifestyle among MSM/W, men with low SES, and men who are experiencing significant psychological distress.

Demographic Risk Factors

The Triple Burden of Race, Class, and Gender
Quinn, S.C. AIDS and the African American woman: The triple burden of race, class, and gender. Health Education Quarterly, 20:305-320, 1993.
This article explores the interaction of race, gender, and social class as risk factors for HIV infection, and addresses the need for health educators to overcome fear, class prejudice, and racial bias.

Social and Cultural Risk Factors

Social Inequality and HIV Infection in Women
Zierler, S. & Krieger, N. Social Inequality and HIV Infection in Women. In The Emergence of AIDS: The Impact on Immunology, Microbiology, and Public Health, K.H. Mayer & H.F. Pizer (eds.). Washington, D.C.: American Public Health Association, 2000.
Social inequality plays a significant role in HIV infection among US women. To explain which women are at risk and why, this chapter reviews the epidemiology of HIV and AIDS among women in light of conceptual frameworks that link health with social justice.