Life Chaos and Perceived Social Support Among Methamphetamine-Using Men Who Have Sex With Men Engaging in Transactional Sexual Encounters

ABSTRACT

Objective: Social support and life chaos have been inversely associated with increased risk of HIV infection. The purpose of this study was to explore among a sample of HIV-negative methamphetamine-using men who have sex with men (MSM) the association between engaging in transactional sex, life chaos, and low social support. Methods: HIV-negative methamphetamine-using MSM completed an online questionnaire between July and October 2012 about recent substance use and sexual behavior. Bivariate and multivariate tests were used to obtain statistically significant associations between demographic characteristics, engaging in transactional sex, life chaos, and the participants' perception of their social support. Results: Of the 325 participants, 23.7% reported engaging in transactional sex, 45.2% reported high life chaos, and 53.5% reported low perceived social support. Participants who engaged in transactional sex were more likely to have high life chaos than participants who did not (aOR = 1.70, 95% CI = [1.01, 2.84]); transactional sex was not associated with social support. Participants with high life chaos were more out about their sexual orientation (aOR = 2.29, 95% CI = [1.18, 4.42]) and more likely to perceive they had low social support (aOR = 3.78, 95% CI = [2.31, 6.22]) than participants with low life chaos. Non-Latinos perceived they had less social support than Latinos (aOR = 0.48, 95% CI = [0.25, 0.92]). Conclusions: Methamphetamine-using MSM engaging in transactional sex experience more life chaos than those who do not engage in transactional sex. Outness, perceived social support, and ethnicity are associated with life chaos.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance abuse
• gay men
• HIV prevention
• transactional sex
• psychosocial determinants

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all parTy participants. They also would like to acknowledge Jared Shenk for his continuing support.

Declaration of interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The study Internet-Based HIV Prevention for Methamphetamine-Using MSM: Formative Research (parTy) was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, funding number 1R21MH095430. Research protocols were approved by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Boards.