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Reactions to Testing HIV Negative: Measurement and Associations with Sexual Risk Behaviour Among Young MSM Who Recently Tested HIV Negative

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Abstract

Receiving an HIV-positive test result is associated with reduced condomless anal sex (CAS), but little is known about negative test results. The recent development of the Inventory of Reactions to Testing HIV Negative confirmed that there are diverse reactions to receiving a negative test result, which have implications for risk behaviour. The goals of the current study were to validate the measure in a sample of young men who have sex with men who recently tested HIV-negative (N = 1113) and to examine its associations with CAS. Factor analysis identified four factors, three of which were the same as the original factors (Reinforced Safety, Luck, and Invulnerability) and one that was novel (Reinforced Risk). Construct validity was demonstrated with associations between subscales and constructs from the IMB model of HIV prevention. Lower Reinforced Safety and higher Luck and Reinforced Risk were associated with more CAS. Associations between Reinforced Safety and Luck with CAS were stronger for those who reported more lifetime HIV tests. Findings highlight the importance of reactions to testing HIV-negative and suggest that they become more important with repeated testing.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all of the participants for their contributions to this study.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse through Grant #R01DA035145-01 awarded to Brian Mustanski.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 625 N Michigan Ave Suite 2700, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Brian A. Feinstein & Brian Mustanski

  2. Northwestern University Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Chicago, IL, USA

    Brian A. Feinstein & Brian Mustanski

  3. Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA

    Brent A. Johnson

  4. Departments of Psychology and Public Health, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Jeffrey T. Parsons

  5. Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training, New York, NY, USA

    Jeffrey T. Parsons

Authors
  1. Brian A. Feinstein
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  2. Brent A. Johnson
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  3. Jeffrey T. Parsons
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  4. Brian Mustanski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Mustanski.

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Conflict of Interest

Brian A. Feinstein declares that he has no conflict of interest. Brent A. Johnson declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jeffrey T. Parsons declares that he has no conflict of interest. Brian Mustanski declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Feinstein, B.A., Johnson, B.A., Parsons, J.T. et al. Reactions to Testing HIV Negative: Measurement and Associations with Sexual Risk Behaviour Among Young MSM Who Recently Tested HIV Negative. AIDS Behav 21, 1467–1477 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1525-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1525-4

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