The role of psychosocial factors in hiv risk-reduction among gay and bisexual men: A quantitative review

Abstract

The results of a quantitative review of 36 studies of the adoption of safer sex among gay and bisexual men are interpreted in terms of the three stages of the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM). Variables associated with the process of labelling oneself as at risk and of committing oneself to practising safer sex were moderately associated with safer sexual behaviour. One variable we included in the enactment of safer sex - relationship status - was a highly reliable predictor of unsafe sex. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical advances embodied in Catania, Kegeles and Coates (1990) AIDS Risk Reduction Model, its focus on the process of behaviour change and its specification of an enactment stage in which the intention-behaviour gap is addressed. The implications of the results are discussed with respect to a pragmatic knowledge base and future investigations of sexual health.