Citation

Davey-Rothwell MA, Siconolfi DE, Tobin KE, Latkin CA. Health Place 2015; 33: 181-186.

Affiliation

Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, 2213 McElderry Street, 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States. Electronic address: Carl.latkin@jhu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.03.009

PMID

25840353

Abstract

A large literature suggests that social norms contribute to HIV and substance use related behaviors. Less attention has been given to neighborhood factors that may contribute to the development of norms about risky behaviors. We examined the cross-sectional associations between perceptions of one's neighborhood and norms of perceived prevalence of, and peer support for sex exchange and risky injection behaviors. The sample consisted of 719 people who reported injecting heroin and cocaine and did not move in the past 6 months in Baltimore, MD. Living in a neighborhood with disorder was associated with believing that others exchanged sex, practiced risky injection behaviors (descriptive norms) and approved of risky injection behavior (injunctive norms).

Language: en