Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on February 3, 2006
Health Education Research 2006 21(4):488-500; doi:10.1093/her/cyh075
Health-related social control and relationship interdependence among gay couples
1 Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, CB #7440, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
2 Department of Community and Family Medicine, Division of Community Health, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
3 Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
*Correspondence to: M. A. Lewis. E-mail: megan.lewis{at}unc.edu
How gay partners influence each other to promote health and prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is poorly understood. The present study combined qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the experience of health-related social control and relationship processes among a sample of 60 gay male couples. Couples completed semistructured interviews and separate self-administered questionnaires. Findings suggest that partners attempt to change a variety of behaviors, many of which are not HIV related, that they use a variety of social control tactics, some of which are specific to HIV prevention, and that their care and concern for each other and their relationship motivate social control to change health behaviors. The implications for health behavior change research and intervention are discussed.