JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Substance use among adolescent girls is associated with numerous risk characteristics including engaging in sexual risk behaviors which can lead to HIV and STI diagnoses. This is an important phenomenon to target as there is a significant race-gendered paradox that occurs when Black girls use and misuse drugs. When misuse occurs among this group, they are more likely to face harsher consequences and worse health outcomes than boys and other ethnic-minority girls. Therefore, there is a need to understand risk and protective factors to drug use and sexual risk behaviors among Black girls and develop a robust intervention that can be catered for this group.

Objective:

We propose the development of a HIV/AIDS, STI and drug use strengths-based prevention education intervention for Black girls to promote protective factors

Methods:

A sequential, mixed methods study will be conducted, and we will use the first three steps of the ADAPT-ITT framework to begin the development of the intervention. Three aims will be described in this protocol. First, aim 1 is to explore socio-cultural risk and protective factors among Black girls between the ages 13-18 years old in drug use and HIV/STI prevention using focus group methodology and surveys. We will conduct at least 10 focus groups to include up to (n=75 Black girls) or until we reach saturation. Our target sample size for the quantitative portion of the study will be (n= 200). Aim 2 will focus on choosing an evidence-based intervention to adapt based on findings that will inform prevention strategies for the intervention and forming a youth advisory board consisting of a small sample of Black girls that participated in the study. Aim 3 will be to conduct a pretest with the youth advisory board with a (n=10) to determine if the intervention is feasible and will be accepted by Black girls.

Results:

The study is part of a two-year research pilot study award from the National Institutes of Mental Health. Data collection for this study began October 2021. Aim 1 data collection is 95% complete. We expect to complete all data collection for Aim 1 on or before May 30, 2023. Study activities for aim 2 are occurring simultaneously as data is being collected and analyzed and will be completed in Summer 2023. Study activities for Aim 3 will begin Fall 2023.

Conclusions:

This study will be one of the few interventions that address both sexual health and drug use together and catered for Black girls. We anticipate that the intervention will be beneficial for Black girls across the nation to work on building culturally appropriate prevention education and building peer social supports, resulting in reduction or delayed substance use and improved sexual health. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05014074)