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“They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students in China have unique sexual health challenges, including a higher risk of HIV infection, stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) population, and limited access to LGBTQ-affirma...

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Autores principales: Yang, Minhui, Li, Chunyan, Zou, Kaiyue, Liang, Yun, Zhang, Rudong, Tang, Kun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37729385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291550
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author Yang, Minhui
Li, Chunyan
Zou, Kaiyue
Liang, Yun
Zhang, Rudong
Tang, Kun
author_facet Yang, Minhui
Li, Chunyan
Zou, Kaiyue
Liang, Yun
Zhang, Rudong
Tang, Kun
author_sort Yang, Minhui
collection PubMed
description Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students in China have unique sexual health challenges, including a higher risk of HIV infection, stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) population, and limited access to LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health support. Nonetheless, previous research or policymaking has rarely addressed the students’ needs for sexual health support from their perspectives. This study aims to explore GBMSM college students’ perceptions and attitudes to current sexual health resources, the challenges they encounter, and their expectations to acquiring LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health information and services. The exploration was carried out through field visits and in-depth interviews with 26 GBMSM college students and eight relevant stakeholders in five cities in China. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts and fieldwork memos. Four themes emerged around the preference and needs of GBMSM students in dealing with their sexual health challenges: the association between tackling sexual health challenges and entering LGBTQ communities, the roles of emotional attachment in shaping the preference for HIV-related care and support, the desired modes of acquiring sexual health support, and the current unmet service needs. We discovered that the information-and-care-seeking behaviors of GBMSM college students are highly influenced by and connected to their participation in online and in-person LGBTQ communities. Due to the overall stigmatizing sociocultural environment of LGBTQ in China, GBMSM college students tend to rely on LGBTQ communities, seeking trust and a sense of belongingness for tackling their sexual health challenges. Conventional school-based sexual health educational programs, which often apply top-down, stigma-and-fear-based, and non-LGBTQ-inclusive teaching strategies, rarely help GBMSM college students to solve sexual health problems in real life. GBMSM college students are eager to have LGBTQ-affirmative "health managers" who can understand their emotional experiences and interpersonal contexts and assist them with sexual health issues. However, such support is generally perceived as limited by the students. Our study highlights these unmet needs of the GBMSM students and emphasizes the importance of developing future LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health programs among Chinese GBMSM college students and young GBMSM in general.
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spelling pubmed-105111252023-09-21 “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support Yang, Minhui Li, Chunyan Zou, Kaiyue Liang, Yun Zhang, Rudong Tang, Kun PLoS One Research Article Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students in China have unique sexual health challenges, including a higher risk of HIV infection, stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) population, and limited access to LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health support. Nonetheless, previous research or policymaking has rarely addressed the students’ needs for sexual health support from their perspectives. This study aims to explore GBMSM college students’ perceptions and attitudes to current sexual health resources, the challenges they encounter, and their expectations to acquiring LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health information and services. The exploration was carried out through field visits and in-depth interviews with 26 GBMSM college students and eight relevant stakeholders in five cities in China. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to the interview transcripts and fieldwork memos. Four themes emerged around the preference and needs of GBMSM students in dealing with their sexual health challenges: the association between tackling sexual health challenges and entering LGBTQ communities, the roles of emotional attachment in shaping the preference for HIV-related care and support, the desired modes of acquiring sexual health support, and the current unmet service needs. We discovered that the information-and-care-seeking behaviors of GBMSM college students are highly influenced by and connected to their participation in online and in-person LGBTQ communities. Due to the overall stigmatizing sociocultural environment of LGBTQ in China, GBMSM college students tend to rely on LGBTQ communities, seeking trust and a sense of belongingness for tackling their sexual health challenges. Conventional school-based sexual health educational programs, which often apply top-down, stigma-and-fear-based, and non-LGBTQ-inclusive teaching strategies, rarely help GBMSM college students to solve sexual health problems in real life. GBMSM college students are eager to have LGBTQ-affirmative "health managers" who can understand their emotional experiences and interpersonal contexts and assist them with sexual health issues. However, such support is generally perceived as limited by the students. Our study highlights these unmet needs of the GBMSM students and emphasizes the importance of developing future LGBTQ-affirmative sexual health programs among Chinese GBMSM college students and young GBMSM in general. Public Library of Science 2023-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10511125/ /pubmed/37729385 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291550 Text en © 2023 Yang et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yang, Minhui
Li, Chunyan
Zou, Kaiyue
Liang, Yun
Zhang, Rudong
Tang, Kun
“They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title_full “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title_fullStr “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title_full_unstemmed “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title_short “They have their own people”: Emotional connections, community belonging, and Chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) college students’ needs for sexual health support
title_sort “they have their own people”: emotional connections, community belonging, and chinese gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbmsm) college students’ needs for sexual health support
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37729385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291550
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