This research explored Cape Verdean community advocates' understandings of the structural and social realities that contribute to the increased HIV/AIDS risk of Northeastern U.S.-based immigrant Cape Verdean women. A community perspective informed the analysis of the multi-layered contextual barriers that these advocates identified as limiting the effectiveness of individual-level HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention models. Qualitative content analysis of interviews with nine community advocates revealed several thematic clusters including challenges to (1) perceived institutional and community realities; (2) traditional gender relations; and, (3) traditional ways of thinking. These findings challenge universalist cognitive-behavioral change models of HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention and are critically discussed to better understand the complex realities faced by Cape Verdean immigrant women. A liberatory community psychology perspective framed the research process and contributed to reconceptualizing HIV/AIDS risk as a community problem that requires interventions not simply at the individual and relational levels, but also at the structural level. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Qualitative content analysis Ethnic/racial immigrant communities Contextual barriers HIV/AIDS and gender inequality Cape Verdean advocates poverty

Psychology, Social social psychology HIV Infections Human immunodeficiency virus infection Massachusetts poverty human Africa, Western Health Behavior middle aged Consumer Advocacy ethnology interview United States Humans female Africa Article adult migration Interviews Emigration and Immigration