The deleterious effects of
racism on a wide range of health outcomes, including HIV risk, are well
documented among racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States. However,
little is known about how men of color who have sex with men (MSM) cope with
stress from racism and whether the coping strategies they employ buffer against
the impact of racism on sexual risk for HIV transmission.
We examined
associations of stress and coping with racism with unprotected anal intercourse
(UAI) in a sample of African American (N = 403), Asian/Pacific
Islander (N = 393), and Latino (N = 400) MSM recruited in
Los Angeles County, CA during 2008-2009. Almost two-thirds (65 %) of the
sample reported being stressed as a consequence of racism experienced within
the gay community.
Overall, 51 % of the sample reported having UAI in the
prior 6 months. After controlling for race/ethnicity, age, nativity,
marital status, sexual orientation, education, HIV serostatus, and lifetime
history of incarceration, the multivariate analysis found statistically
significant main effects of stress from racism and avoidance coping on UAI; no
statistically significant main effects of dismissal, education/confrontation,
and social-support seeking were observed. None of the interactions of stress
with the four coping measures were statistically significant. Although stress
from racism within the gay community increased the likelihood of engaging in
UAI among MSM of color, we found little evidence that coping responses to
racism buffered stress from racism. Instead, avoidance coping appears to
suggest an increase in UAI.
Below: Stress from Racism Experienced in the Gay Community, by Race/Ethnicity (%)
Below: Coping Strategies Employed to
Deal with Racism, by Race/Ethnicity: Mean Scale Scores1
1. Range: 1 = “strongly disagree” to 4 = “strongly agree”
Full article at: http://goo.gl/78mRbc
- 1Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Middlebury College (http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/soan), Middlebury, VT, 05753, USA, chongsukhan@gmail.com.
- Arch Sex Behav. 2015 Feb;44(2):411-20. doi: 10.1007/s10508-014-0331-1. Epub 2014 Jul 25.
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