Grant: Fellowship - Priority Announcement - HIV/AIDS and/or STBBI

Members of sexual minority groups, which include gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBM), experience homophobic stigma. This can lead to internalized homophobia and identity related stress, which are closely linked with difficulty forming social connections and fewer social supports. This leads, in turn, to increased loneliness. Among GBM, loneliness is associated with behaviours that increase risk for STIs/HIV (e.g., substance use and compulsive partner seeking). This likely contributes to the fact that GBM remain at more than 71 times greater risk for HIV compared to other men. Maladaptive coping strategies for loneliness, like substance use and hypersexual behaviour, not only increase an individual's risk for STI/HIV infection, but can impair and interfere with the development and maintenance of positive social relationships, leading to only fleeting relief from the symptoms of loneliness and isolation. There are two types of loneliness: emotional loneliness (longing for a partner or a close confidant) and social loneliness (longing for a larger social network). However, the distinct impact of these two types is loneliness among GBM is not yet understood. It is also unknown whether GBM who experience loneliness may be using other means to protect themselves when engaging in ostensibly risky sex (i.e., condomless anal sex with multiple partners). Understanding more specifically how loneliness may be associated with risky sex, as well as with the uptake and adherence of biomedical HIV prevention (i.e., using HIV medications to prevent transmission) is another key component to developing effective STI/HIV prevention. Thus, the aims of my proposed project are to (1) understand which types of loneliness (emotional vs. social) are more important for STI/HIV risk and prevention behaviours among GBM. (2) Investigate whether biomedical HIV prevention plays a mitigating role in GBM's loneliness-related sexual risk taking.