'Coming out' and sexual debut: understanding the social context of HIV risk-related behaviour

This paper explores HIV risk‐related behaviour in the context of men's entry into the gay community. It is an exploratory study which employed a qualitative approach to describe men's accounts of the process of acculturation. Twenty in‐depth interviews were conducted with working‐class gay...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of community & applied social psychology 1998-11, Vol.8 (6), p.409-421
Main Authors: Flowers, Paul, Smith, Jonathan A., Sheeran, Paschal, Beail, Nigel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Barnsley
Biological and medical sciences
Coming out
Community
England
gay men
Health Behavior
HIV
HIV risk-related behaviour
Homosexuality
Homosexuals
Human immunodeficiency virus
Human viral diseases
Identity
Infectious diseases
Interviews
Medical sciences
Phenomenology
Risk
Risk behaviour
Self Disclosure
Sexual Behavior
Sexual behaviour
Sexual debut
Social networks
Viral diseases
Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids
Working Class
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Summary:This paper explores HIV risk‐related behaviour in the context of men's entry into the gay community. It is an exploratory study which employed a qualitative approach to describe men's accounts of the process of acculturation. Twenty in‐depth interviews were conducted with working‐class gay men from Barnsley, UK. These were translated and analysed, using interpretative phenomenological analysis, for recurrent themes which reflect the way gay men thought about HIV risk‐related behaviour, ‘coming out’ and their sexual debut. As men began to socialize with other gay men in their local community they had much to learn with regard to local gay culture, e.g. a distinct new vocabulary and local sexual mores. By virtue of their lack of experience and the personal impact of first sexual experiences, some men reported feelings of disempowerment with their initial sexual partners. Theoretical accounts relating to gay men's sexual health would benefit from a consideration of the way gay men report the process of acculturation. Sexual debut and the particular vulnerabilities of entry into the gay community highlight a temporal context in which affective experiences are privileged above considerations of sexual health. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:1052-9284
1099-1298
DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1298(199811/12)8:6<409::AID-CASP476>3.0.CO;2-M