The Health Challenges of Emerging Adult Gay Men: Effecting Change in Health Care

Key points

Adolescence and emerging adulthood in gay men

The psychologist Jeffrey Arnett (2000) conceptualized the developmental state of emerging adulthood to differentiate the period between adolescence and adulthood, which, in Western industrialized nations, encompasses approximately ages 18 to 25. More recently, the period has been expanded to age 29 so as to capture demographic and educational shifts and also due to the financial realities of Millennials, including Millennial gay men, brought about by the economic crash of 2008 to 2009.^23,24 The

Health challenges faced by young and emerging adult gay men

The emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the later twentieth century engendered an unprecedented public health focus on the health and health care needs of gay men.⁴⁰ Accordingly, a wave of biomedical and social science emerged that clearly demonstrated the extent to which gay men, including emerging adult gay men, are disproportionally affected by a host of health-related challenges relative to their heterosexual peers.^37,41

Health disparities among young and emerging adult gay men are

Health care challenges

The myriad health challenges faced by emerging adult gay men are magnified due to hardships in accessing adequate and competent health care that serves the unique needs of this population.³⁷ Contributing factors to inadequate care include overall lack of provider knowledge on health care needs,^90,91 history of stigmatizing experiences in the health care setting, and discomfort around discussing sexual orientation and/or sexual behaviors.92, 93, 94 Because of these conditions, 18% of LGBTQ

Addressing the health challenges of emerging adult gay men

Emerging adult gay men are disproportionally burdened by and at an increased risk for health challenges and inequalities spanning multiple health domains (eg, mental, physical, and sexual).^37,41 These health burdens do not occur in isolation; instead, the health profile of emerging adult gay men is defined by a set of co-occurring, comorbid, and mutually enforcing health problems.¹¹⁸ As conceptualized by Singer and colleagues^119,120 and adapted for gay men by Stall and colleagues,¹¹⁸ the

Summary

Ultimately, effective health care for emerging adult gay men must be cognizant of the fact that these young gay men are grappling with their sexuality during this period of emerging adulthood, which compounds and exacerbates the multitude of developmental issues that emerge during this stage of life. Second, a holistic approach to the health of emerging gay men must use a biopsychosocial frame^15,130 in understanding health challenges with an eye to how social conditions may shape health and how

Disclosure

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under awards R01DA025537 and 2R01DA025537. The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health had no role in development of the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing of the manuscript, or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not