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A qualitative study of the sexuality of women living in a homeless shelter.
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Acquaviva, Kimberly Deanne.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Health education.
- Political planning.
- Social service.
- 0452.
- 0630.
- 0680.
- Penn dissertations--Education.
- Education--Penn dissertations.
- Local Subjects:
- Penn dissertations--Education.
- Education--Penn dissertations.
- 0452.
- 0630.
- 0680.
- Physical Description:
- 134 pages
- Contained In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 61-03A.
- System Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- text file
- Summary:
- The purposes of this research---to discover the ways in which women living in a homeless shelter understand and experience their sexuality, and to produce a theory explaining the ways in which women living in a homeless shelter's cultural meanings and beliefs regarding sex and sexuality might inform their sexual behavior---were achieved through six months of ethnographic research spent in residence at a homeless shelter, and the subsequent analysis of the data. The cultural meanings ascribed to sex and sexuality by women living in a homeless shelter may affect their risk of acquiring Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) because they: (1) believe trust (and faith in God) protects them from sexually transmitted infections, (2) are afraid of seeking information about HIV/AIDS out of a fear they will be stigmatized as having the disease, (3) are reluctant to ask a man to use a condom, (4) believe they can tell if a man has HIV by his skin (clear vs. broken out), (5) use sex to get cash, though they do not frame this as "prostitution," (6) seem to have a high rate of nonconsensual sex, (7) often engage in unsafe sexual behavior while under the influence of drugs/alcohol, and (8) believe that HIV/AIDS was transmissible through sharing a cigarette, drinking from the same glass, etc, so they believe protecting themselves during sex is futile. The Acquaviva Theory of Psycho-Sexual Fatalism posits that a connection may exist between negative sexual and emotional experiences and the development of fatalism and the ultimate abdication of personal responsibility for the future, thus placing women living in a homeless shelter at additional risk of HIV/STI's and unplanned pregnancy.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. in Education) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-03, Section: A, page: 1186.
- Adviser: Kenneth D. George.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175.
- ISBN:
- 9780599700468
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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