Skip to main content
Log in

Social Support Network Characteristics and Sexual Risk Taking Among a Racially/Ethnically Diverse Sample of Young, Urban Men Who Have Sex with Men

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
AIDS and Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Associations between social support network characteristics and sexual risk among racially/ethnically diverse young men who have sex with men (YMSM) were examined using egocentric network data from a prospective cohort study of YMSM (n = 501) recruited in New York City. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses examined associations between social support network characteristics and sexual risk taking behaviors in Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White YMSM. Bivariate analyses indicated key differences in network size, composition, communication frequency and average relationship duration by race/ethnicity. In multivariable analyses, controlling for individual level sociodemographic, psychosocial and relationship factors, having a sexual partner in one’s social support network was associated with unprotected sexual behavior for both Hispanic/Latino (AOR = 3.90) and White YMSM (AOR = 4.93). Further examination of key network characteristics across racial/ethnic groups are warranted in order to better understand the extant mechanisms for provision of HIV prevention programming to racially/ethnically diverse YMSM at risk for HIV.

Resumen

Las asociaciones entre las características de las redes sociales de apoyo y el riesgo sexual entre hombres jóvenes que tienen sexo con otros hombres (YMSM, por sus siglas en Inglés) fueron examinadas usando datos de las redes egocéntricas de un estudio de cohorte prospectivo de YMSM (n = 501) reclutados en la ciudad de Nueva York. Los análisis de las regresiones logísticas bivariadas y multivariadas examinaron las asociaciones entre las características de las redes sociales de apoyo y los comportamientos de toma de riesgo sexual en YMSM Negros, Hispanos/Latinos, y Blancos. Los análisis bivariados indicaron diferencias claves en el tamaño de las redes, la composición, la frecuencia de la comunicación y el promedio de la duración de las relaciones por raza/origen étnico. En los análisis multivariados, controlando para los factores sociodemográficos a nivel individual, los factores psicosociales y de relaciones, tener un compañero sexual en la redes sociales de apoyo del individuo estuvo asociado con el comportamiento sexual sin protección para los YMSM Hispanos/Latinos (AOR = 3.90) y Blancos (AOR = 4.93). Un examen más detallado de las características clave de las redes en los diferentes grupos raciales/étnicos se justifica con el fin de comprender mejor los mecanismos existentes para proveer programas de prevención del VIH a YMSM de diversas razas/origen étnico en riesgo de contraer el VIH.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. HIV surveillance in adolescents and young adults. 2012.

  2. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Fact sheet: HIV and young men who have sex with men. 2012.

  3. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Annual report: pediatric and adolescent HIV/AIDS. HIV epidemiology program. 2012.

  4. Millett GA, Flores SA, Peterson JL, Bakeman R. Explaining disparities in HIV infection among black and white men who have sex with men: a meta-analysis of HIV risk behaviors. AIDS. 2007;21(15):2083–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Feldman MB. A critical literature review to identify possible causes of higher rates of HIV infection among young black and Latino men who have sex with men. J Natl Med Assoc. 2010;102(12):1206–21.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Christakis NA. When networks can teach us about drug use. BMJ. 2008;336(7641):420.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Friedman SR, Kottiri BJ, Neaigus A, Curtis R, Vermund SH, Des Jarlais DC. Network-related mechanisms may help explain long-term HIV-1 seroprevalence levels that remain high but do not approach population-group saturation. Am J Epidemiol. 2000;152(10):913–22.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Friedman SR, Aral S. Social networks, risk-potential networks, health, and disease. J Urban Health. 2001;78(3):411–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Friedman SR, Bolyard M, Maslow C, Mateu-Gelabert P, Sandoval M. Harnessing the power of social networks to reduce HIV risk. Focus. 2005;20(1):5–6.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Perisse AR, Langenberg P, Hungerford L, Boulay M, Charurat M, Schechter M, et al. Egocentric network data provide additional information for characterizing an individual’s HIV risk profile. AIDS. 2010;24(2):291–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Curtis R, Friedman S, Neaigus A, Jose B, Goldstein M, Ildefonso G. Street-level drug markets—network structure and HIV risk. Soc Netw. 1995;17(3–4):229–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Neaigus A, Friedman SR, Goldstein M, Ildefonso G, Curtis R, Jose B. Using dyadic data for a network analysis of HIV infection and risk behaviors among injecting drug users. NIDA Res Monogr. 1995;151:20–37.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Adimora AA, Schoenbach VJ. Social context, sexual networks, and racial disparities in rates of sexually transmitted infections. J Infect Dis. 2005;191(Suppl 1):S115–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Adimora AA, Schoenbach VJ, Doherty IA. HIV and African Americans in the southern United States: sexual networks and social context. Sex Transm Dis. 2006;33(7 Suppl):S39–45.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Luke DA, Harris JK. Network analysis in public health: history, methods, and applications. Annu Rev Public Health. 2007;28:69–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Mimiaga MJ, Reisner SL, Cranston K, Isenberg D, Bright D, Daffin G, et al. Sexual mixing patterns and partner characteristics of black MSM in Massachusetts at increased risk for HIV infection and transmission. J Urban Health. 2009;86(4):602–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Doherty IA, Serre ML, Gesink D, Adimora AA, Muth SQ, Leone PA, et al. Sexual networks, surveillance, and geographical space during syphilis outbreaks in rural north Carolina. Epidemiology. 2012;23(6):845–51.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Tobin KE, Tang AM, Gilbert SH, Latkin CA. Correlates of HIV antibody testing among a sample of injection drug users: the role of social and contextual factors. AIDS Behav. 2004;8(3):303–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Neaigus A, Friedman SR, Curtis R, Des Jarlais DC, Furst RT, Jose B, et al. The relevance of drug injectors’ social and risk networks for understanding and preventing HIV infection. Soc Sci Med. 1994;38(1):67–78.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Friedman SR, Neaigus A, Jose B, Curtis R, Goldstein M, Ildefonso G, et al. Sociometric risk networks and risk for HIV infection. Am J Public Health. 1997;87(8):1289–96.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kottiri BJ, Friedman SR, Neaigus A, Curtis R, Des Jarlais DC. Risk networks and racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of HIV infection among injection drug users. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2002;30(1):95–104.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Latkin CA, Hua W, Forman VL. The relationship between social network characteristics and exchanging sex for drugs or money among drug users in Baltimore, MD, USA. Int J STD AIDS. 2003;14(11):770–5.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Latkin CA, Hua W, Tobin K. Social network correlates of self-reported non-fatal overdose. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2004;73(1):61–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Rhodes T, Singer M, Bourgois P, Friedman SR, Strathdee SA. The social structural production of HIV risk among injecting drug users. Soc Sci Med. 2005;61(5):1026–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Costenbader EC, Astone NM, Latkin CA. The dynamics of injection drug users’ personal networks and HIV risk behaviors. Addiction. 2006;101(7):1003–13.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Bohnert AS, German D, Knowlton AR, Latkin CA. Friendship networks of inner-city adults: a latent class analysis and multi-level regression of supporter types and the association of supporter latent class membership with supporter and recipient drug use. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2010;107(2–3):134–40.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Latkin CA, Kuramoto SJ, Davey-Rothwell MA, Tobin KE. Social norms, social networks, and HIV risk behavior among injection drug users. AIDS Behav. 2010;14(5):1159–68.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Havens JR, Lofwall MR, Frost SD, Oser CB, Leukefeld CG, Crosby RA. Individual and network factors associated with prevalent hepatitis C infection among rural appalachian injection drug users. Am J Public Health. 2012. doi:15.10.2105/AJPH.2012.300874.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Havens JR, Oser CB, Knudsen HK, Lofwall M, Stoops WW, Walsh SL, et al. Individual and network factors associated with non-fatal overdose among rural Appalachian drug users. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2011;115(1–2):107–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Young AM, Jonas AB, Mullins UL, Halgin DS, Havens JR. Network structure and the risk for HIV transmission among rural drug users. AIDS Behav. 2012. doi:10.1007/s10461-012-0371-2.

  31. Halkitis PN, Moeller RW, Siconolfi DE, Jerome RC, Rogers M, Schillinger J. Methamphetamine and poly-substance use among gym-attending men who have sex with men in New York City. Ann Behav Med. 2008;35(1):41–8.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Tobin KE, Latkin CA. An examination of social network characteristics of men who have sex with men who use drugs. Sex Transm Infect. 2008;84(6):420–4.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Tobin KE, German D, Spikes P, Patterson J, Latkin C. A comparison of the social and sexual networks of crack-using and non-crack using African American men who have sex with men. J Urban Health. 2011;88(6):1052–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Schneider JA, Cornwell B, Ostrow D, Michaels S, Schumm P, Laumann EO, et al. Network mixing and network influences most linked to HIV Infection and risk behavior in the HIV epidemic among black men who have sex with men. Am J Public Health. 2012. doi:15.10.2105/AJPH.2012.301003.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Schneider J, Michaels S, Bouris A. Family network proportion and HIV risk among black men who have sex with men. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2012. doi:10.1097/QAI.0b013e318270d3cb.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Latkin C, Yang C, Tobin K, Penniman T, Patterson J, Spikes P. Differences in the social networks of African American men who have sex with men only and those who have sex with men and women. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(10):e18–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Miller M, Serner M, Wagner M. Sexual diversity among black men who have sex with men in an inner-city community. J Urban Health. 2005;82(1 Suppl 1):i26–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Kelly JA, Murphy DA, Sikkema KJ, McAuliffe TL, Roffman RA, Solomon LJ, et al. Randomised, controlled, community-level HIV-prevention intervention for sexual-risk behaviour among homosexual men in US cities. Community HIV Prevention Research Collaborative. Lancet. 1997;350(9090):1500–5.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Jones KT, Gray P, Whiteside YO, Wang T, Bost D, Dunbar E, et al. Evaluation of an HIV prevention intervention adapted for black men who have sex with men. Am J Public Health. 2008;98(6):1043–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Halkitis PN, Kapadia F, Siconolfi DE, Moeller RM, Perez Figeroa R, Barton S, et al. Individual,psychosocial and social correlates of unprotected anal intercourse in a new generation of young men who have sex with men in New York city. Am J Public Health. 2013. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.300963.

  41. Sobell LC, Sobell MB. Alcohol timeline followback users’ manual. Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation; 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Kapadia F, Frye V, Bonner S, Emmanuel PJ, Samples CL, Latka MH. Perceived peer safer sex norms and sexual risk behaviors among substance-using Latino adolescents. AIDS Educ Prev. 2012;24(1):27–40.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Serovich JM, Grafsky EL, Craft SM. Does family matter to HIV-positive men who have sex with men? J Marital Fam Ther. 2011;37(3):290–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Crosby R, Holtgrave DR, Stall R, Peterson JL, Shouse L. Differences in HIV risk behaviors among black and white men who have sex with men. Sex Transm Dis. 2007;34(10):744–8.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Magnus M, Kuo I, Phillips G, Shelley K, Rawls A, Montanez L, et al. Elevated HIV prevalence despite lower rates of sexual risk behaviors among black men in the district of Columbia who have sex with men. AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2010;24(10):615–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Wei C, Raymond HF, Guadamuz TE, Stall R, Colfax GN, Snowden JM, et al. Racial/ethnic differences in seroadaptive and serodisclosure behaviors among men who have sex with men. AIDS Behav. 2011;15(1):22–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Rosenberg ES, Khosropour CM, Sullivan PS. High prevalence of sexual concurrency and concurrent unprotected anal intercourse across racial/ethnic groups among a national, web-based study of men who have sex with men in the United States. Sex Transm Dis. 2012;39(10):741–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Smith KP, Christakis NA. Social networks and health. Annu Rev Sociol. 2008;34:405–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Friedman SR, Mateu-Gelabert P, Curtis R, Maslow C, Bolyard M, Sandoval M, et al. Social capital or networks, negotiations, and norms? A neighborhood case study. Am J Prev Med. 2007;32(6 Suppl):S160–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Grossman CI, Forsyth A, Purcell DW, Allison S, Toledo C, Gordon CM. Advancing novel HIV prevention intervention research with MSM–meeting report. Public Health Rep. 2011;126(4):472–9.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Martin JL, Dean L, Garcia M, Hall W. Barbara snell dohrenwend memorial lecture. The impact of AIDS on a gay community: changes in sexual behavior, substance use, and mental health. Am J Community Psychol. 1989;17(3):269–93.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Klitzman RL, Greenberg JD, Pollack LM, Dolezal C. MDMA (‘ecstasy’) use, and its association with high risk behaviors, mental health, and other factors among gay/bisexual men in New York City. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2002;66(2):115–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Wong W, Chaw JK, Kent CK, Klausner JD. Risk factors for early syphilis among gay and bisexual men seen in an STD clinic: San Francisco, 2002–2003. Sex Transm Dis. 2005;32(7):458–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Flores SA, Mansergh G, Marks G, Guzman R, Colfax G. Gay identity-related factors and sexual risk among men who have sex with men in San Francisco. AIDS Educ Prev. 2009;21(2):91–103.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Holt M. Gay men and ambivalence about ‘gay community’: from gay community attachment to personal communities. Cult Health Sex. 2011;13(8):857–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. O’Donnell L, Agronick G, San DA, Duran R, Myint U, Stueve A. Ethnic and gay community attachments and sexual risk behaviors among urban Latino young men who have sex with men. AIDS Educ Prev. 2002;14(6):457–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Contract #R01DA025537 awarded to Perry N. Halkitis.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to F. Kapadia.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kapadia, F., Siconolfi, D.E., Barton, S. et al. Social Support Network Characteristics and Sexual Risk Taking Among a Racially/Ethnically Diverse Sample of Young, Urban Men Who Have Sex with Men. AIDS Behav 17, 1819–1828 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-013-0468-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-013-0468-2

Keywords

Navigation