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Resilience among young men who have sex with men in New York City

Sexuality Research and Social Policy Journal of NSRC volume 3, Article number: 13 (2006) Cite this article

Abstract

This article describes a study of resilience among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Resilience is defined as positive adaptation in the context of hardship. Using targeted sampling to capture the diversity and range of this hidden population, we recruited 569 YMSM ages 17–28 years old and examined a subset of 134 YMSM who had experienced severe childhood adversity, as indicated by placement in foster care. Most of the YMSM in this subset were from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds and fewer than half identified as gay or homosexual (46.3 percent). More than half (58.3 percent) exhibited positive outcomes on four of seven indicators of adaptive functioning. YMSM who identified as either bisexual or heterosexual exhibited lower rates of resilience. Structural-as well as individual-level factors appear to be implicated in resilience among YMSM. Findings underscore the importance of fostering stable sexual identity as a means of building resilience.

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Affiliations

  1. Institute for AIDS Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, 10010, New York, NY

    Marya Viorst Gwadz & Noelle R. Leonard

  2. Institute for International Research on Youth at Risk, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, 10010, New York, NY

    Michael C. Clatts, Huso Yi & Lloyd Goldsamt

  3. Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Division of Research on Children, Youth and Families, 6430 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1500, 90028, Los Angeles, CA

    Steve Lankenau

Authors
  1. Marya Viorst Gwadz
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  2. Michael C. Clatts
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  3. Huso Yi
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  4. Noelle R. Leonard
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  5. Lloyd Goldsamt
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  6. Steve Lankenau
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Correspondence to Marya Viorst Gwadz.

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Gwadz, M.V., Clatts, M.C., Yi, H. et al. Resilience among young men who have sex with men in New York City. Sex Res Soc Policy 3, 13 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.1.13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.1.13

Key words

  • sexual identity
  • homosexual
  • bisexual
  • transgender
  • adaptation
  • foster care