The proposed study seeks to determine the effect social control transactions, i.e., interactions involving influence, persuasion, and constraint, have on the health practices and AIDS-related behaviors of HIV negative gay men. Previous research on primary prevention among gay men has not sufficiently considered the impact social control may have in preventing HIV infection. This gap in the literature is curious given the importance of social relationships in determining physical health and mortality. Most research examining social ties has focused on the support-providing aspect of social bonds in attempting to explain the mechanisms by which social ties influence physical and emotional health. Far less attention has been paid to the social control or regulatory aspect of social bonds. Just as social support may contribute to health by alleviating stress, social control can contribute to health by constraining health-damaging behaviors and promoting health-enhancing behaviors among HIV negative gay men. Yet, whereas support provided by network members is thought to have only beneficial effects, attempts by network members to exercise control may have more complex effects -- the promotion of beneficial health behaviors while at times causing psychological distress. Little is known about the interpersonal efforts to exercise social control in the close relationships of gay men. The following aims are proposed: 1. To examine whether AIDS-related social control attempts by friends and intimate partners serves to discourage health-compromising practices and promote health-enhancing practices related to the prevention of HIV transmission among HIV negative gay men. 2. To determine if social attempts are more effective in the context of socially supportive friend and partner relationships for HIV negative gay men. 3. To determine whether AIDS-related social control attempts elicit positive and negative emotional reactions and behavioral reactance for HIV negative gay men. 4. To examine the above aims from a dyadic perspective, assessing the perceptions and beliefs of both participants in AIDS-related social control transactions, in order to better understand the factors that facilitate or inhibit appropriate APB and positive health behaviors, and that engender positive and negative behavioral and emotional reactions. Consequently, gay dyads (25 friend dyads and 25 intimate partner dyads) will answer questions at two time points regarding their motivations for exercising regulation directed toward changing their partner's APB, and their own emotional and behavioral reactions to being the target of social control. The proposed research will serve as the basis for a program of research that seeks to aid in the development of effective primary and secondary preventive interventions that capitalize on a naturally occurring social process, social control, in the hopes that such interventions can maximize appropriate behavior change in a variety of populations by decreasing the possibility of negative emotional and behavioral reactions associated with social control attempts.
| Darbes, Lynae A; Lewis, Megan A (2005) HIV-specific social support predicts less sexual risk behavior in gay male couples. Health Psychol 24:617-22 |
