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New to New York: Ecological and Psychological Predictors of Health Among Recently Arrived Young Adult Gay and Bisexual Urban Migrants

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Young gay and bisexual men might move to urban enclaves to escape homophobic environments and achieve greater sexual and social freedom, yet little is known about the health risks that these young migrants face.

Purpose

Drawing on recent qualitative depictions of gay and bisexual men’s urban ecologies and psychological research on motivation and goal pursuit, we investigated migration-related motivations, experiences, health risks, and their associations among young gay and bisexual men in New York City.

Method

Gay and bisexual men (n = 273; ages 18–29) who had moved to New York City within the past 12 months completed an online survey regarding their hometowns, new urban experiences, migration motivations, and health risks.

Results

Not having a college degree, HIV infection, hometown stigma, within-US migration, and moving to outside a gay-dense neighborhood were associated with moving to escape stress; hometown structural stigma and domestic migration were associated with moving for opportunity. Migrating from larger US-based hometowns, having recently arrived, and moving for opportunity predicted HIV transmission risk. Social isolation predicted lower drug use but more mental health problems. Higher income predicted lower HIV and mental health risk but higher alcohol risk. Hometown interpersonal discrimination predicted all health risks, but hometown structural stigma protected against drug risk.

Conclusion

Findings offer a comprehensive picture of young gay and bisexual male migrants’ experiences and health risks and help build a theory of high-risk migration. Results can inform structural- and individual-level interventions to support the health of this sizeable and vulnerable segment of the urban population.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Justin Cai, Gabe Murchison, Xinru Ren, and Inna Saboshchuk for their database programming and data management efforts.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences Division, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    John E. Pachankis PhD & Adam I. Eldahan MPH

  2. Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Sarit A. Golub PhD, MPH

  3. Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Sarit A. Golub PhD, MPH

Authors
  1. John E. Pachankis PhD
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  2. Adam I. Eldahan MPH
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  3. Sarit A. Golub PhD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John E. Pachankis PhD.

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Conflict of Interest

Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards Authors Pachankis, Eldahan, and Golub 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.

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.

Informed Consent

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

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Pachankis, J.E., Eldahan, A.I. & Golub, S.A. New to New York: Ecological and Psychological Predictors of Health Among Recently Arrived Young Adult Gay and Bisexual Urban Migrants. ann. behav. med. 50, 692–703 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9794-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9794-8

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