Project PHRESH.comm (Philadelphia & Hartford Research & Education on Sexual Health & Communication)

This project is a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Family Planning Council (Philadelphia), the University of Connecticut, and the Hispanic Health Council (Hartford, Connecticut). This is a two-phase, five-year study that is being conducted in Hartford and Philadelphia. In Phase I, multi-method formative research will be used to investigate the context within which sexually active young adult African American and Puerto Rican women and men (ages 18-25) communicate sexual values and negotiate about barrier contraceptive use (male condoms, female condoms, or the diaphragm). In Phase II, data will be used to develop, implement and evaluate intervention models to encourage choices and effective negotiation skills for prevention of HIV/STDs and unplanned pregnancies.

The specific aims of the project in Phase I are:

By gender and racial/ethnic strata:

1. To understand decision-making processes about abstinence, sexual initiation, monogamy, non-barrier contraceptive methods, and barrier contraceptive methods;

2. To understand communication processes about abstinence, sexual initiation, monogamy, non-barrier contraceptive methods, and barrier contraceptive methods;

3. To understand informants’ perceptions of partners’ intentions, attitudes and values about pregnancy/childbearing and risk management, and how they “know” their partners’ perceptions;

4. To assess cultural and structural factors that impact sexual behavior; risk; barrier contraceptive method use and negotiation; and communication; and

5. To gather information on communication and negotiation of sex and contraceptive use.

The central aim of Phase II is:

1. To use Phase I findings to test gender, culturally, and age-specific community-based intervention models aimed at promoting effective communication/negotiation strategies and preventing unintended pregnancy and STD/HIV.

Hartford, Connecticut Research Team
Hispanic Health Council
Merrill Singer, Ph.D., Co-Investigator
Claudia Santelices, Ph.D., Project Director
Hassan Salaheen, M.D., M.P.H., Data Analyst
Lucy Rohena, Community Researcher
Tania Martinez, Community Researcher

University of Connecticut
Pam Erickson, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Rosemary Diaz, M.A., Graduate Assistant
Dugeidy Ortiz, M.A., Graduate Assistant

Collaborators
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Family Planning Council
Linda Hock-Long, PhD, Principal Investigator
Paul Whittaker, PhD, Research Manager
Amy Cassidy, MS, Project Director
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCCDPHP, Division of Reproductive Health
Kendra Hatfield - Timajchy, Ph.D. Candidate
Katina Pappas - DeLuca
Martha Kapaya
Tara Giblin, MPH, CHES, Research Fellow