Understanding HIV serostatus disclosure practices with sexual partners among seropositive gay and bisexual men.
Item
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Title
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Understanding HIV serostatus disclosure practices with sexual partners among seropositive gay and bisexual men.
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Identifier
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AAI3103174
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identifier
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3103174
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Creator
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Stirratt, Michael James.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Suzanne Ouellette
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Date
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2003
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social | Psychology, Personality | Health Sciences, Public Health
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Abstract
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This study examined the concerns and practices of HIV seropositive gay and bisexual men regarding serostatus disclosure with their sexual and romantic partners. Three questions guided the study: (1) What concerns inform men's approaches towards serostatus disclosure with sexual and romantic partners? (2) What approaches have men employed to address serostatus disclosure issues with sexual and romantic partners? (3) How are serostatus disclosure practices related to sexual (risk) practices? These questions were addressed through a multi-component analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews collected by the CDC-funded Seropositive Urban Men's Study (SUMS).;The present study examined a sub-sample of 21 SUMS interviews that either were conducted by the study author or that met sampling criteria designed to ensure diversity by participant race/ethnicity and recruitment location. Using a grounded theory approach, three forms of analysis were applied to the interview transcripts: biographical, content analytic, and discursive. The three methods of analysis provided multiple 'lenses' through which men's concerns and practices regarding serostatus disclosure could be examined and conceptualized.;The study found that many HIV seropositive gay and bisexual men experience the issue of serostatus disclosure with sexual and romantic partners as a significant and recurrent challenge. Disclosure practices were highly context-sensitive and centered on concerns regarding partner rejection, perceived norms and sexual scripts, and powerful catalysts to disclose, such as moral mandates, romantic relationships, and embodiments of serostatus within one's life. Men employed a variety of strategies to address disclosure, including insistence on disclosure before sex, using safer sex as a justification for nondisclosure, making disclosure contingent on situational factors, seeking seropositive partners to circumvent disclosure challenges, avoiding romantic relationships that invite disclosure, and relying on non-verbal communication and partner assumptions to convey one's serostatus. These strategies demonstrated that disclosure practices were intimately braided with men's broad approaches to sex and dating, and that they were frequently more complex than a singular act of telling or not telling. Men also indicated an indirect connection between disclosure practices and sexual risk behavior which was frequently moderated by partner serostatus; this study therefore did not find a consistent connection between disclosure and safer sex.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
