Changes in sexual behaviors associated with crack cocaine cessation among African Americans in Houston, Texas

Aim To examine the association between the crack cocaine cessation and risky sexual behaviors. Design and setting Between June 2002 and March 2005, a sample of African-American residents of Houston, Texas who were using crack at the time of enrollment participated in a cohort study to evaluate per outreach interventions to reduce HIV risk behaviors. The sample for this study consisted of 351 women and men who completed structured surveys at baseline and at six months about socio-demographic characteristics, drug use, and sexual behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the association between crack cessation and risky sexual behaviors at follow-up, while controlling for confounding characteristics. Measurements Crack cessation was defined as reporting no crack use in the 30 days prior to the follow-up interview. Possible associated factors included unprotected sex, having multiple sex partners, trading sex for money/drugs, crack use, and socio-demographic variables. Findings At the six-month follow-up interview, 21% of participants reported that they had not used crack in the previous 30 days. For women, crack cessation was significantly associated with having only one sex partner at follow-up; for men, crack cessation was significantly associated with being single, separated, or divorced at baseline, having only one sex partner at follow-up, and initiating protected sex by follow-up. Conclusion These findings support previous research indicating that crack use is associated with unprotected sex and multiple sexual partners, as men and women who ceased crack use were less likely to engage in these risky sexual behaviors. Findings demonstrate that treatment for crack use could have a meaningful effect on risky sexual behaviors and HIV/STI prevention.^

The illness experiences of African Americans residing in an inner city community, Houston, Texas

This dissertation documents health and illness in the context of daily life circumstances and structural conditions faced by African American families living in Clover Heights (pseudonym), an inner city public housing project in the Third Ward, Houston, Texas. Drawing from Kleinman's (1980) model of culturally defined health care systems and using the holistic-content approach to narrative analysis (Lieblich, Tuval- Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998) the purpose of this research was to explore the ways in which social and health policy, economic mobility, the inner city environment, and cultural beliefs intertwined with African American families' health related ideas, behaviors, and practices. I recruited six families using a convenience sampling method (Schensul, Schensul, & LeCompte, 1999) and followed them for fourteen months (2010–2011). Family was defined as a household unit, or those living in the same residence, short or long-term. Single, African American women ranging in age from 29–80 years headed all families. All but one family included children or grandchildren 18 years of age and younger, or children or other relative 18 years of age and older. I also recruited six residents with who I became acquainted over the course of the project. I collected data using traditional ethnographic methods including participant-observation, archive review, field notes, mapping, free-listing, in-depth interviews, and life history interviews. ^ Doing ethnography afforded the families who participated in this project the freedom to construct their own experiences of health and illness. My role centered on listening to, learning from, and interpreting participants' narratives, exploring similarities and differences within and across families' experiences. As the research progressed, a pattern concerning diagnosis and pharmacotherapy for children's behavioral and emotional problems, particularly attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), emerged from my formal interactions with participants and my informal interactions with residents. The findings presented in this dissertation document this pattern, focusing on how mothers and families interpreted, organized, and ascribed meaning to their experiences of ADHD and PBD. ^ In the first manuscript presented here, I documented three mothers' narrative constructions of a child's diagnosis with and pharmacotherapy for ADHD or PBD. Using Gergen's (1997) relational perspective I argued that mothers' knowledge and experiences of ADHD and PBD were not individually constructed, but were linguistically and discursively constituted through various social interactions and relationships, including family, spirituality and faith, community norms, and expert systems of knowledge. Mothers' narratives revealed the complexity of children's behavioral and emotional problems, the daily trials of living through these problems, how they coped with adversity and developed survival strategies, and how they interacted with various institutional authorities involved in evaluating, diagnosing, and encouraging pharmaceutical intervention for children's behavior. The findings highlight the ways in which mothers' social interactions and relationships introduced a scientific language and discourse for explaining children's behavior as mental illness, the discordances between expert systems of knowledge and mothers' understandings, and how discordances reflected mothers' ‘microsources of power’ for producing their own stories and experiences. ^ In the second manuscript presented here, I documented the ways in which structural factors, including gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, coupled with a unique cultural and social standpoint (Collins, 1990/2009) influenced the strategies this group of African American mothers employed to understand and respond to ADHD or PBD. The most salient themes related to mother-child relationships coalesced around mothers' beliefs about the etiology of ADHD and PBD, ‘conceptualizing responsibility,’ and ‘protection-survival.’ The findings suggest that even though mothers' strategies varied, they were in pursuit of a common goal. Mothers' challenged the status quo, addressing children's behavioral and emotional problems in the ways that made the most sense to them, specifically protecting their children from further marginalization in society more so than believing these were the best options for their children.^

The leopard's claw : a thrilling story of love and adventure from a European castle through the West African jungle, disclosing a deep insight into the quality and spiritual influence of African social institutions and conditions, and revealing a profound psyschic [sic] interpretation of African inner life, all clustered about the mysterious function and significance of the leopard's claw /

Mode of access: Internet.

The oldest abolition society : being a short story of the labors of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race.

Cover title.

The doctrines and discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church /

Includes index.

A narrative of the adventures and escape of Moses Roper : from American slavery /

"Twenty-fourth thousand."

Folk songs of the American Negro : no. 1 /

Includes index.

Memoir and theatrical career of Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius : text.

Author's autograph presentation copy, inscribed to "Mrs. H. Hughes," dated Dec. 10th, [18]49.

The Colored American Republican text book : a book of facts and figures, showing what the Republican Party has done for the Afro-American.

"The Colored American, Washington, D.C., a national Negro newspaper." [1893-1904?].

Bannaker's Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina almanack and ephemeris, for the year of our Lord 1796; being bissextile, or leap-year; the twentieth year of American independence, and eighth year of the federal government.

"The Anatomy of Man's Body" on page [3] is the only illustration.

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. /

Compare: Library Company of Philadelphia. Afro-Americana, 1553-1906, 3234.

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. /

"Letter from Wendell Phillips, Esq.": pages [xiii]-xvi.

Commodification of Black Bodies: Convict Leasing and Prison Privatization in the United States of America

The United States is home to a private prison industry, which allows for the detention of human beings to be transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry. This paper traces the parallels between the post-civil war convict leasing system and the current system of prison privatization, which encourages the commodification of black bodies in order to maintain a racial hierarchy. It analyzes the incompatibility of prison privatization with the US Constitution. Private prisons, which hold African American men at a higher rate that state-run prisons, take cost-cutting measures in order to increase profit, which expose prisoners to higher rates of abuse and increased recidivism rates. Private prisons have significant political power to determine crime control legislation, which has led to harsh laws which increase the number of men of color behind bars. This paper provides a three-phase plan for abolishing private prisons and reducing overall incarceration rates in the United States.

Overweight/Obesity and Quality of Life: A Comparison of Mexican and Mexican-American Adolescents

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

"Sorrow Brought Forth Joy": Feelings of Faith in American Literature

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06