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What Front‐Line CBO Staff Can Tell Us About Culturally Anchored Theories of Behavior Change in HIV Prevention for Asian/Pacific Islanders
Author(s) -
Yoshikawa Hirokazu,
Wilson Patrick A.,
Hsueh JoAnn,
Rosman Elisa A.,
Chin John,
Kim Jennifer H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1025611327030
Subject(s) - health psychology , pacific islanders , front line , public health , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , front (military) , asian culture , psychology , sociology , criminology , ethnic group , political science , medicine , geography , nursing , ethnology , family medicine , anthropology , law , meteorology
Few rigorously tested primary prevention programs have been developed to prevent HIV infection among immigrant communities in the United States. This is in part because of the lack of culturally specific behavioral theories that can inform HIV prevention for immigrant communities in the United States. This article aims to develop such theories for a population—Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PIs) immigrant communities—who have been overlooked in theory development and program evaluation. Frontline community‐based organization (CBO) peer educators, an underutilized source of expertise regarding cultural factors specific to HIV infection among A/PI communities, are the sample of study Asian/Pacific Islander peer educators working at an urban AIDS service organization devoted to health promotion for this population; ( N =35). They were interviewed to examine (1) detailed narratives describing instances of behavior change and (2) culturally anchored theories of behavior change which the narratives imply. Theories of the influence of positive cultural symbols on the taboo of HIV/AIDS, moderators of the effectiveness of social network influences on behavior change, and setting‐ and community‐level processes predicting HIV risk behavior were implicit in the peer educators' narratives. Implications for future research, methodology and prevention practice are discussed.