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Health Education Research Advance Access published online on February 3, 2006
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cyh075
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received March 21, 2005
Accepted December 10, 2005

Original article

Health-related social control and relationship interdependence among gay couples

Megan A. Lewis 1 *, Elisa Gladstone 1, Susanne Schmal 2, and Lynae A. Darbes 3

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Megan A. Lewis, E-mail: megan.lewis{at}unc.edu


  Abstract

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.


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