Associations Between Partner-Venue Specific Personal Responsibility Beliefs and Transmission Risk Behavior by HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)

Personal responsibility beliefs of HIV-positive individuals to protect sex partners are an important determinant of engagement in transmission risk behavior. However, the degree to which such beliefs vary across different partners is unknown. HIV-positive men who have sex with men (n = 248) completing an online survey rated their personal responsibility beliefs for partners met in up to four different ways: (a) in a bar; (b) through the internet; (c) in a public sex environment (PSE); or (d) through friends or family. For those reporting two or more partner-meeting venues in the prior 3 months (n = 98), about a third reported variation in responsibility ratings. Means among the venues were compared in pairwise fashion, with the strongest beliefs accruing to partners met through friends or family and the least with partners met in PSEs. These results provide further evidence that identifying ways to increase personal responsibility beliefs is an important goal, as well as is the application of Bandura’s theory of moral agency to HIV transmission risk behavior.