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Operating without a safety net: Gay male adolescents’ responses to marginalization and migration and implications for theory of syndemic production of health disparities
Health Education and Behavior (2011)
  • Douglas Bruce, DePaul University
  • Gary W Harper, DePaul University
  • the ATN
Abstract
Health disparities among gay men (HIV, substance use, depression) have been described as a mutually occurring “syndemic” that is socially produced through two overarching dynamics: marginalization and migration. Although the syndemic theory proposes a developmental trajectory, it has been largely based on epidemiological studies of adult gay men and has not been examined using qualitative data from gay male adolescents and emerging adults describing their developmental experience. We conducted interviews with 54 HIV-positive gay and bisexual male adolescents and emerging adults at four sites in the United States. This study provides examples of developmental trajectories that help explain the early onset of socially produced health disparities among some gay male adolescents and emerging adults, but also the development of risk factors that may follow some gay men into adulthood.
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Douglas Bruce, Gary W Harper and the ATN. "Operating without a safety net: Gay male adolescents’ responses to marginalization and migration and implications for theory of syndemic production of health disparities" Health Education and Behavior Vol. 38 Iss. 4 (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/douglas_bruce/2/