Utilizing a Life Course Approach to Examine HI V Risk for Black Adolescent Girls and Young Adult Women in the United States: A Systematic Review of Recent Literature

Objective: Black female youth have been disproportionately burdened by the HIV epidemic. Emerging literature suggests that individual and social-structural factors may uniquely increase HIV risk within this popu­lation during key developmental periods, namely adolescence (ages 10-17 years) and emerging adulthood (ages 18-25 years). Few studies, however, have compared drivers of risk within and between these key develop­mental periods. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of recent literature to characterize and identify important gaps in our understanding of the individual, psycho­social, and social-structural determinants of HIV risk among Black adolescent girls and emerging adult women. Design: Using a replicable strategy, we searched electronic databases for articles and abstracts published between October 1, 2017 and September 30, 2019 in which the primary focus was on HIV prevention among Black adolescent girls and emerging adults in the United States. Results: In total, 21 studies met the inclu­sion criteria. Most of the studies on Black adolescent girls assessed family functioning, parental monitoring, and parent-adolescent communication as determinants of HIV-related behaviors. However, equivalent studies were lacking for Black emerging adult women. Moreover, few studies as­sessed neighborhood characteristics, social networks, or other community-level factors as determinants of HIV-related behaviors, which are known drivers of HIV disparities. Conclusions: Our findings highlighted several gaps in the literature, including failure to recognize the ethnic and cultural differences among Black women that may contribute to behavioral differences within this population and insufficient acknowledg­ment of the role of HIV protective factors (eg, resilience and community assets). Implications and future directions are discussed.  Ethn Dis. 2020;30(2):277-286; doi:10.18865/ed.30.2.277