The Impact of Perceived Discrimination, Psychosocial Factors, and HIV Preventive Practices on Sexual Health Risk Behaviors

Abstract

African American gay and bisexual men are members of marginalized groups that have historically faced persecution and discrimination. Although there is a well-documented relationship between discrimination and engagement in health risk behaviors, fewer studies have explored how the perception of discrimination among African American gay and bisexual men might be predictive of engagement in sexual health risk behaviors. The purpose of this study was to explore how psychosocial variables, such as perceived discrimination and education attainment, could affect engagement in sexual health risk behaviors. This study also explored relationships between perceived sexual orientation discrimination and health risk behaviors, while examining educational attainment and knowledge of HIV preventive practices as moderators.

Participants in this study included 3,916 African American gay and bisexual men. Utilizing structural equation modeling, the proposed hypothesized model obtained good fit x2 (N = 3,916, df = 24) = 125.54, p > .05; CFI = .94; TLI = .89; RMSEA = .033. Results indicated perceived discrimination mediated the educational attainment-sexual health risk behavior relationship. Additionally, perceived discrimination increased the likelihood of engaging in sexual health risk behaviors. Engagement in HIV preventive practices was found to weaken the association between perceived discrimination and sexual health risk behaviors. Additional results are discussed based on future research implications and future preventive programming.