Male Homosexual Behavior and the Effects of AIDS Education: A Study of Behavior and Safer Sex in New Zealand and South Australia

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Since the AIDS epidemic was recognized, information on safer sex has been assumed to be the most crucial means of preventing further spread of the disease. But how well has AIDS education worked What kinds of education work best and for whom This study provides an in-depth analysis of the results of AIDS education programs and explores the psychosocial factors that affect behavioural responses to education. B.R. Simon Rosser provides a detailed profile of a specific population at risk, including factors such as sexual behaviour, psychology, religious affiliation, legal status, and discrimination. Using comparative measures of behaviour, personality, social status, attitudes and risk-taking, he identifies important differences between men who engage in safer sex and those who do not. Finally, he evaluates the impact of different approaches to AIDS education. Examining both positive and negative effects, Rosser shows that the spread of the HIV virus was actually accelerated by a national education campaign utilizing fear, and contrasts this result with of four international gay-sensitive education campaigns that produced positive changes in behaviour and lifestyle. He discusses ways in which AIDS education must develop in order to become more effective, together with crucial changes that are needed in both the gay population and the larger community if HIV transmission is to be halted. This study is a resource for education and research in AIDS prevention, sexual behaviour, psychovenereology, education, health, and related disciplines.

Reviews

For this study, 159 gay men from Auckland and 77 from Adelaide completed questionnaires to assess the effects of HIV education on their sexuality. Rosser discusses the psychology of safer sex, the social impact of prejudice on gay men's lives, and how these relate to their erotic practices. He finds that AIDS education is more effective in areas that have enacted antidiscrimination legislation. Society can greatly slow the spread of AIDS among gay men if the culture at large becomes more supportive of homosexuality. Rosser also argues that education campaigns that are diluted to accommodate public sensitivity about explicit sex education are ineffective. Further, programs that emphasize sexual abstinence have the highest failure rate in promoting safer sex. In fact, trying to motivate safer sex with strategies that emphasize fear, monogamy, and abstinence are counterproductive. These strategies increase unsafe sex in those at high risk and so increase the spread of HIV. Also, Rosser argues that assertiveness skills greatly increase the likelihood of adoption of safer sex practices. This book is an excellent example of the best social research: careful design; scholarly analyses; respondent-sensitive, lucidly written, and policy oriented. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-Choice
"For this study, 159 gay men from Auckland and 77 from Adelaide completed questionnaires to assess the effects of HIV education on their sexuality. Rosser discusses the psychology of safer sex, the social impact of prejudice on gay men's lives, and how these relate to their erotic practices. He finds that AIDS education is more effective in areas that have enacted antidiscrimination legislation. Society can greatly slow the spread of AIDS among gay men if the culture at large becomes more supportive of homosexuality. Rosser also argues that education campaigns that are diluted to accommodate public sensitivity about explicit sex education are ineffective. Further, programs that emphasize sexual abstinence have the highest failure rate in promoting safer sex. In fact, trying to motivate safer sex with strategies that emphasize fear, monogamy, and abstinence are counterproductive. These strategies increase unsafe sex in those at high risk and so increase the spread of HIV. Also, Rosser argues that assertiveness skills greatly increase the likelihood of adoption of safer sex practices. This book is an excellent example of the best social research: careful design; scholarly analyses; respondent-sensitive, lucidly written, and policy oriented. Upper-division undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

B. R. SIMON ROSSER is a Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow, Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine, at the University of Minnesota. He has published journal articles in psychology, medicine, primary health care, venereology, AIDS, and theology.