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Multiple Sexual Partnerships in a Sample of African-American Crack Smokers

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Abstract

The sample for this study consisted of 692 sexually active African-American crack cocaine users living in Houston, TX who reported more than one sexual partner in the previous 30 days. Participants were asked to describe each of their two most recent partners from a list of eight choices: spouse/like a spouse/lover; close friend/friend/acquaintance/customer you like/customer. Analyses were conducted on the 1,384 partners and 692 partnership combinations reported. Partnerships and partnership patterns were examined with respect to three risk behaviors—unprotected sex, alcohol use to accompany sex, and drug use to accompany sex—and with respect to three affective measures—partner intimacy, condom use responsibility, and condom use self-efficacy. Results indicate that while many partnerships were based on trading sex for money or drugs, many participants reported partners they considered a spouse or friend. Risk behaviors and affective measures were found to differ by partner type.

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Acknowledgements

This study was sponsored by grant # R01 DA14519 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors wish to thank Drs. Michael Ross and Eric Ratliff for their helpful suggestions in the preparation of this paper and Eli Ann Vontz for her assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to John S. Atkinson.

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Atkinson, J.S., Williams, M.L., Timpson, S.C. et al. Multiple Sexual Partnerships in a Sample of African-American Crack Smokers. AIDS Behav 14, 48–58 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-007-9346-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-007-9346-0

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