Minority health risk behaviors: an introduction to research on sexually transmitted diseases, violence, pregnancy prevention and substance use

The goal of this article is to introduce the Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Violence, and Pregnancy Prevention Project (RSVPP), which represents one response of the National Institutes of Health to reduce health disparities in racial and ethnic populations. As part of this effort, seven independent projects were funded to design, implement, and evaluate community-based intervention strategies aimed at reducing risk behaviors among minority youth. The interventions and research designs varied across the sites; however, all sites included a common set of questions in their questionnaires. This study focuses on the lessons learned about community-based research across all sites. Sites learned many lessons regarding community-based research, including: the value of building trust, the dynamic nature of communities, the intensive time and resources necessary for success, dissimilarities between researcher and community goals, the value of clear communication, the importance of recognizing the contribution of community members and expressing gratitude for their efforts; the difficulty of disseminating findings regarding sensitive topics, and the need for continuation of interventions. Community involvement posed challenges, but enhanced the quality of the implementation and the evaluation of the interventions. This special issue includes findings from the RSVPP sites.