Health Education & Behavior

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

The Diabetes Educator

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Fergus, S.
Right arrow Articles by Kral, A. H.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Fergus, S.
Right arrow Articles by Kral, A. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
First published on July 14, 2008
Health Education & Behavior 2008, doi:10.1177/1090198108319891

Article

Social Support Moderates the Relationship Between Gay Community Integration and Sexual Risk Behavior Among Gay Male Couples

Stevenson Fergus, PhD, MPH1*, Megan A. Lewis, PhD2, Lynae A. Darbes, PhD3, and Alex H. Kral, PhD4

1 Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
2 Research Triangle Institute Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
3 Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco
4 Research Triangle Institute, San Francisco, California

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ferguss{at}queensu.ca.


  Abstract
Few studies of partnered gay men consider the social context within which sexual behaviors occur or investigate positive aspects of the social environment that may offset factors that are related to risky sexual behaviors. Fewer still include assessment of both individuals making up couples. Using an ecological framework and an actor-partner multilevel analysis approach, the authors investigate how three dimensions of gay community integration are related to individual sexual risk behavior among 108 individuals in 54 couples. They then investigate how general social support and partner-provided, HIV-specific social support moderate these relationships. An individual’s gay community social engagement and general social support interact to predict sexual risk behavior, such that the apparent protective effect of social support is more pronounced among those with less social engagement. The association between partner-reported general social support and safer sexual behaviors is more pronounced among those whose partners disclose their gay identity to more people.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?