Sex, Intimacy, and HIV

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Abstract
Combining elicitation interview, focus group discussion, and ethnographic observation data, we present an account of sociocul-tural and contextual influences on the emotionally and sexually intimate behavior of a self-defined social network of 11 heterosexually-active Puerto Rican men living in New York City, aged 18–29. Community influences included: (a) strong peer and familial ties, (b) distrust of outsiders, and (c) omnipresence of drugs, alcohol, and HIV/AIDS. Sexual script themes included: (a) pressure to fulfill culturally-defined male gender roles, (b) tensions between emotional versus sexual intimacy needs, (c) “good girl-bad girl” ambivalence, and (d) distrust of women. Safer sex themes included: (a) methods of assessing partner risk, (b) strategies for reducing HIV risk exposure, (c) ambivalence toward female-initiated condom use, and (d) feelings about pregnancy and fatherhood. Collectively, our findings highlight the need for developing community HIV prevention programs which utilize...