This thesis explores some of the factors that influence whether African American female college students use or implement safe sex knowledge. High rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the black community and the overrepresentation of individuals under the age of 25 in sexually transmitted infections (STI) reports indicate the need for research that investigates the physical, social, and cultural aspects of high-risk sexual behaviors and the factors that influence them for this group.
African American female college students present a unique challenge to sexual health educators; a challenge that been relatively unacknowledged and unaddressed in research and scholarly literature. This omission from research is likely the result of assumptions that suggest that the structural barriers that greatly impact the use of sexual health knowledge in low-income African American women. However, focus group and survey data suggest that this group may in-fact share some structural barriers with low-income African American women since financial and cultural barriers that may have existed in their communities do not necessarily become obsolete upon entering college.
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