Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Health Promotion, Education and Behavior
Sub-Department
Public Health
First Advisor
Mindi Spencer
Second Advisor
Stacy Smallwood
Abstract
In the United States, 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with HIV each year (CDCa, 2014). The HIV/AIDS epidemic has had a particularly devastating impact on the southern U.S., especially the Deep South – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina (Reif, Whetten, Wilson, McAllaster, Pence, Legrand, & Gong, 2014). The Deep South, while only composing of 36% of the national population, accounts for 50% of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the nation (Human Rights Watch, 2010). No other population has been hit harder than men who have sex with men (MSM; Prejean, Tang, & hall, 2013). Black MSM have been disproportionately affected by HIV, with 1 in 5 Black MSM diagnosed with HIV compared to 1 in 22 White MSM (Lieb, Prejean, Thompson, Fallon, Cooper, Gates, Liberti, Friedman, & Malow, 2011). A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the disparity seen between Black and White MSM (Millet, Malebranche, & Peterson, 2007; Kraut-Becher, Eisenberg, Voytek, Brown, Metzger, & Aral, 2007; Millet, Peterson, Wolitski, & Stall, 2008), but very few have considered the influence of selfreported degree of masculinity/femininity on condom use among Black MSM. This study aimed to examine the consistency of condom use in receptive anal intercourse (RAI) and insertive anal intercourse (IAI) among Black MSM in relation to the self-reported degree of masculinity/femininity. After completing secondary data analysis of the Sexual Health In Faith Tradition (SHIFT) Study, self-reported degree of masculinity/femininity was not associated with consistency of condom use in both RAI and IAI. The findings support to Malebranche, Gvetadze, Millet, and Sutton’s (2010) results that indicated gender role conflict does not predict unprotected RAI and IAI. Further research is needed to better understand the influence of gender role among Black MSM and the possible ramifications gender role conflict may have on sexual behaviors, especially consistency of condom use.
Rights
© 2015, Elizabeth D. Peeler
Recommended Citation
Peeler, E. D.(2015). The Influence of Self-Reported Degree of Masculinity/Femininity on Condom Use Among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men in the Deep South. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3112