Posted on June 10, 2014
Source: Newswise
Family and cultural pressures to conform to prescribed masculine behaviors create social isolation and distress that may drive young gay black men to seek approval and acceptance through perilous sexual behaviors, according to research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. This dangerous “compensatory” mechanism, the researchers say, may contribute to the disproportionately high HIV infection rate seen in this population. In 2010, black gay and bisexual men between the ages of 13 and 24 accounted for nearly 4,800 new HIV infections — more than twice as many as either young white or young Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study results, based on interviews with 35 young men, are described online May 15 in the American Journal of Public Health. The participants included openly gay and bisexual men, as well as men who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual. The investigators say their findings offer one possible explanation for the disproportionately high HIV infection rate among young black men who have sex with men.
“HIV risk is the sum total of many factors, but social and family stress is a well-known driver of all types of risk-taking behaviors, and our findings clearly support the notion this also holds true when it comes to HIV risk,” says study lead investigator Errol Fields, M.D., Ph.D., an adolescent medicine expert at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
