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Testing Negative Means I’m Lucky, Making Good Choices, or Immune: Diverse Reactions to HIV Test Results are Associated with Risk Behaviors

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

HIV testing may lead to behavioral changes among some individuals, but no scale has been developed to assess potential mechanisms.

Purpose

We aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a scale to measure psychological reactions to the receipt of a negative HIV test and explore the scale’s associations with unprotected anal intercourse (UAI).

Methods

Two focus groups were conducted to develop the Inventory of Reactions to Testing HIV Negative, which was subsequently tested on 725 men who have sex with men in the New York City area.

Results

Factor analyses confirmed the presence of three subscales—Reinforced Safety, Invulnerability, and Luck. Regression analyses demonstrated that the subscales interacted with HIV testing behavior to influence UAI.

Conclusions

These findings support the notion that there is heterogeneity in how individuals respond to a negative HIV test, with some individuals subsequently being influenced towards increased engagement in HIV risk behaviors.

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Acknowledgments

Quantitative data for this study were gathered in concert with online recruitment efforts to identify and screen potential participants to enroll in one of the following studies: Pillow Talk (R01-MH087714; PI: Parsons), MiChat (R03-DA031607; PI: Weinberger), and W.I.S.E. (R01-DA029567; PI: Parsons). Qualitative interviews and the development of the Inventory of Reactions to Testing HIV Negative were supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA035145; PI: Mustanski). H. Jonathon Rendina’s contributions to this manuscript were supported in part by a National Institute of Mental Health Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31-MH095622). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors would like to give special thanks to Ruben Jimenez, Christian Grov, and Ana Ventuneac for their contributions to the design and implementation of the project; to Chris Hietikko and Joshua Guthals for their involvement with recruitment; and to Craig Sineath for conducting the online focus groups.

Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

Authors Mustanski, Rendina, Greene, Sullivan, and Parsons declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Brian Mustanski PhD & George J. Greene PhD

  2. Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    H. Jonathon Rendina MPhil, MPH & Jeffrey T. Parsons PhD

  3. Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies and Training (CHEST), New York, NY, USA

    H. Jonathon Rendina MPhil, MPH & Jeffrey T. Parsons PhD

  4. Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Patrick S. Sullivan DVM, PhD

  5. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University, 625 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 2700, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Brian Mustanski PhD

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  1. Brian Mustanski PhD
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  2. H. Jonathon Rendina MPhil, MPH
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  5. Jeffrey T. Parsons PhD
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Correspondence to Brian Mustanski PhD.

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Mustanski, B., Rendina, H.J., Greene, G.J. et al. Testing Negative Means I’m Lucky, Making Good Choices, or Immune: Diverse Reactions to HIV Test Results are Associated with Risk Behaviors. ann. behav. med. 48, 371–383 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9612-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9612-0

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