1. Dyadic dynamics of HIV risk among transgender women and their primary male sexual partners: the role of sexual agreement types and motivations
- Author
-
Don Operario, Toru Nemoto, Sari L. Reisner, Kristi E. Gamarel, Lynae A. Darbes, Colleen C. Hoff, and Deepalika Chakravarty
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Health (social science) ,Adolescent ,Social Psychology ,Casual ,Cross-sectional study ,Sexual Behavior ,Psychological intervention ,HIV Infections ,Context (language use) ,Interpersonal communication ,Trust ,Transgender Persons ,Article ,Condoms ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Prevalence ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Young adult ,Motivation ,030505 public health ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Sexual Partners ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Serodiscordant ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Inclusion (education) ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Transgender women—individuals assigned a male sex at birth who identify as women, female, or on the male-to-female (MTF) trans feminine spectrum—are at high-risk of HIV worldwide. Prior research has suggested that transgender women more frequently engage in condomless sex with primary cisgender (i.e. non-transgender) male partners compared with casual or paying partners, and that condomless sex in this context might be motivated by relationship dynamics such as trust and intimacy. The current study examined sexual agreement types and motivations as factors thatshape HIV risk behaviors in a community sample of 191 transgender women and their cisgenderprimary male partners who completed a cross-sectional survey. Overall, 40% of couples had monogamous, 15% open, and 45% discrepant sexual agreements (i.e., partners disagreed on their type of agreement). Actor-partner interdependence models (APIM) were fit to examine the influence of sexual agreement type and motivations on extra-dyadic HIV risk (i.e., condomless sex with outside partners) and intra-dyadic HIV serodiscordant risk (i.e., condomless sex with serodiscordant primary partners). Formale partners, extra-dyadic risk was associated with their own and their partners' sexual agreement motives, and male partners who engaged in extra-dyadic HIV risk had an increased odds of engaging in HIV serodiscordant intra-dyadic risk. Study findings supportinclusion ofthe male partners of transgender women into HIV prevention efforts. Future research is warranted to explore the interpersonal and social contexts of sexual agreement types and motivations in relationships between transgender women and their male partners to develop interventions that meet their unique HIV prevention needs.
- Published
- 2015