HIV/AIDS/AIDS Prevention in Hispanics
1999). Latina women may feel disempowered in relationships with their partners (Davila & Brackley, 1999; Hirsch, Higgins, Bentley, & Nathanson, 2002; Suarez-Al-Adam et al., 2000) Shain and her colleagues (1999) developed two interventions, one for African American women and one for Latina women. These women were identified through STD clinics and participated in a randomized trial comparing the intervention to a control condition (N=617). The intervention consisted of three small group sessions lasting 3-4 hours each. A key finding of this research is that those who attended the intervention condition had fewer sexually transmitted diseases at follow-up than those in the control condition (16% vs. 27%) and that this reduction was even greater at 12 months than at 6 months after the intervention. This increasing effect over time is a very unusual finding and suggests that the women continued to change their lives in helpful ways long after the intervention had ended. The intervention itself incorporates key factors of successful interventions: 1) extensive preliminary work, 2) a theoretical base, 3) nonjudgmental discussion and 4) ethnic and gender targeting (Marin, 1995). It was based on extensive preliminary work, including 25 focus groups, 102 in-depth interviews and 13 pretests of the intervention itself. It used the AIDS Risk Reduction Model as a theoretical guide while adapting certain elements to reflect the situation of the women to be served. The intervention involved nonjudgmental discussion of the issues of importance to the women and practice of needed skills, such as communicating and negotiating about sex and erotic application of condoms. Facilitators were matched with clients on both gender and ethnicity. The intervention also incorporated many aspects of culturally-sensitive interventions as defined by Bernal, Bonilla & Bellido (1995) . They identified factors that must be considered in doing culturally-sensitive mental health treatment research. Many of these factors are applicable to the development of HW/AIDS
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