Social and sexual network characteristics and concurrent sexual partnerships among urban African American high-risk women with main sex partners

Abstract

Social networks, including sexual networks, have increasingly been considered in research addressing HIV disparities in the United States. The goal of this study is to examine correlates of concurrent involvement in multiple sexual partnerships with social (i.e., non-sexual) and sexual network characteristics among a sample of 337 low-income urban African American women reporting main sexual partnerships longer than 6 months in duration. In the multivariate analyses, women who had larger non-sexual social networks, more family members in that network, and reported high levels of trust in their partner(s) were less likely to be in concurrent partnerships. Women who had one or more sexual partner who used drugs in the past 6 months were more likely to be in concurrent partnerships. Our results provide further evidence of the important association of drug use and concurrent sexual partnerships, but suggest that family members, immediate and extended, may be an important area of focus in addition to structural interventions that address the root causes of poverty and drug abuse.