RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Collaboration among organizations offering sexual health and youth development services has the potential to provide youth with effective sexual health support. However, formally structured efforts (eg, coalition formation) may be impractical or unsuitable for low-income communities where resources are often already limited. Social network theories provide an alternative approach for building collaborative organizational networks. APPROACH: Research aims to evaluate the barriers and facilitators to collaboration in sexual health organizational networks. SETTING: Organizations in low income, urban, communities in Chicago and San Francisco that serve African American adolescents. PARTICIPANTS: Providers (n = 22) from organizations that offer sexual health services and youth development services. METHODS: Focus groups (n = 4) were conducted and analyzed utilizing a combination of coding strategies. RESULTS: Barriers to collaboration included resource limitations and competition, differences in organizational roles and deliverables, and prejudice and stigma. Identifying common ground among organizations was found to be a facilitator to collaboration. Social network concepts in conjunction with study findings lead to the development of a practice model that hypothesizes a pathway for organizations to improve collaboration without formally structured efforts. CONCLUSION: Our findings offer ways to encourage collaboration among organizations that support youth sexual health in low-income, urban, African American communities without relying on formal structures. Such collaborations may be critical for improving the provision of comprehensive sexual health support.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Research on the sexual behaviors of African American youth has primarily focused on associated risks, with a dearth of studies examining a fuller representation of African American adolescents' sexual lives. This study explored the range of messages African American adolescents receive from family members regarding sexual behavior and sexual relationships. METHODS: Participants were 52 sexually experienced African American youth (male = 32, female = 20) between the ages of 15 and 17 recruited from community-based organizations in the United States. Youth participated in individual in-depth qualitative interviews, and data were analyzed using a phenomenological framework. RESULTS: Participants received a variety of messages about sexual behavior and sexual relationships from a range of family members including parents, siblings, grandmothers, aunts/uncles, and cousins. Types of messages clustered into three domains: sexual decision-making, quantity and quality of sexual activity, and sexual health promotion; with themes and sub-themes emerging within each area. CONCLUSION: Gender differences in the types of messages received are explored, and applications of the findings to the development of family-involved community interventions that promote sexual and reproductive health are discussed.
