Youth Culture and HIV Prevention: Developing a qualitative study of youth and HIV prevention in the southeastern United States

Youth living in the southeastern regions of the United States, particularly those of ethnic minority and men who have intimate contact with men bear a disproportionately high incidence of new HIV diagnoses. The proposed project and case study for this paper is born out of the failure of HIV prevention efforts to effectively prevent HIV transmission among urban youth in the southeastern United States.

Federal and local responses to the epidemic focus on safe sex education through abstinence, monogamy, HIV testing, condoms, and communication with intimate partners however ethnographic data and global anthropological research show these approaches to be limited, culturally fraught, and/or harmful when used in isolation to prevent HIV transmission. HIV/AIDS is a global epidemic contracted, suffered, and understood differently by each group of people who experience it. Prevention strategies will not be successful in halting HIV transmission until they become proficient in utilizing qualitative research methods. Understanding local realities is vital.

This paper compares epidemiological, biomedical, and public health approaches to HIV research highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each. It then examines the anthropological theories, methods, data collection and analysis proposed for an upcoming qualitative study of youth culture and HIV prevention being conducted in the southeastern United States. Anthropology has a long history of significant contributions to HIV research utilizing in-depth qualitative methods. Employing them effectively promises significant insights for HIV prevention among youth in the United States as well as to the broader field of HIV research.