Views of young, rural African Americans of the role of community social institutions in HIV prevention.

Background: We explored rural African American youths' perceptions about the role of community social institutions in addressing HIV.

Methods: We conducted four focus groups with African Americans aged 16 to 24 years in two rural counties in North Carolina. Groups were stratified by gender and risk status.

Attractiveness in African American and Caucasian women: is beauty in the eyes of the observer?

Traditional body image studies have been constrained by focusing on body thinness as the sole component of attractiveness. Evidence suggests that African American women may hold a multifactorial view of attractiveness that extends beyond size to include factors such as dress attire and race. The current study employed a culturally sensitive silhouette Model Rating Task (MRT) to examine the effects of attire, body size, and race on attractiveness.