Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Oct;23(5):397-411.
doi: 10.1521/aeap.2011.23.5.397.

The effects of sexism, psychological distress, and difficult sexual situations on U.S. women's sexual risk behaviors

Kyung-Hee Choi  1 , Lisa Bowleg, Torsten B Neilands
Affiliations

The effects of sexism, psychological distress, and difficult sexual situations on U.S. women's sexual risk behaviors

Kyung-Hee Choi et al. AIDS Educ Prev. 2011 Oct.

Abstract

Women represent almost half of the people living with HIV worldwide. Although social discrimination has been recognized as a major obstacle to HIV prevention, few empirical studies have examined the effects of sexism on women's HIV sexual risk behaviors. We analyzed data collected from an ethnically diverse sample of 754 women attending family planning clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area. A majority of respondents reported lifetime experiences of sexism (e.g., 94% reported sexual harassment). Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that experiences of sexism and reports of recent unprotected sex with a primary or a secondary sexual partner were linked through psychological distress and difficult sexual situations. Our results suggest the need to develop HIV prevention strategies for women that address two mechanisms-psychological distress and difficult sexual situations-that link social discrimination to women's sexual risk for HIV.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Hypothesized Structural Equation Model for Any Unprotected Sex with a Primary Sexual Partner: Standardized Path Weights (N=754)* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Hypothesized Structural Equation Model for Any Unprotected Sex with a Secondary Sexual Partner: Standardized Path Weights (N=754)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Amaro H. Love, sex, and power: Considering women’s realities in HIV prevention. American Psychologist. 1995;50:437–447. - PubMed
    1. Amaro H, Raj A. On the margin: Power and women’s HIV risk reduction strategies. Sex Roles. 2000;42(7–8):723–749.
    1. Beadnell B, Baker SA, Morrison DM, Knox K. HIV/STD risk factors for women with violent male partners. Sex Roles. 2000;42(7–8):661–689.
    1. Bentler PM. Multivariate analysis with latent variables: Causal modeling. Annual Review of Psychology. 1980;31:419–456.
    1. Bollen KA, Long JS. Introduction. In: Bollen KA, Long JS, editors. Testing structural equation models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; 1993. pp. 1–9.

Publication types