An Investigation of Racial and Ethnic Homophily on Grindr Among an Ongoing Cohort Study of YMSM

Paul Salamanca; Patrick Janulis; Mich Elliott; Michelle Birkett; Brian Mustanski; Gregory Phillips

doi:10.1007/s10461-018-2262-7

An Investigation of Racial and Ethnic Homophily on Grindr Among an Ongoing Cohort Study of YMSM

Paul Salamanca, Patrick Janulis, Mich Elliott, Michelle Birkett, Brian Mustanski, Gregory Phillips^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Medical Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Men who have sex with men (MSM), and especially MSM of color, are disproportionately affected by HIV. Previous research shows that MSM have high levels of racial/ethnic homophily (the tendency for people to have sex with others who share the same racial/ethnic identification) in sexual dyads, which may help explain HIV disparities. This study fills a gap in previous research by grounding network data from a cohort study of young MSM in Chicago (RADAR) in the contexts of virtual spaces (VSs) and examining differences in levels of racial/ethnic homophily using multilevel-logistic-regression models. Results show that Grindr differs from other VSs in proportions of racially/ethnically homophilous dyads and by partner racial/ethnic identification. After controlling for general homophily trends, sex partnerships formed on Grindr by Black MSM were significantly less likely to be homophilous than those of White MSM. While racial/ethnic groups differ in likelihood to form homophilous partnerships, this trend varies by VS.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	302-311
Number of pages	10
Journal	AIDS and behavior
Volume	23
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2262-7
State	Published - Jan 15 2019

Funding

Acknowledgements RADAR is supported by NIDA and NIAID RADAR is supported by NIDA and NIAID of the NIH (U01DA036939, PI: Mustanski; R01DA025548-S1, PI: Mustanski; R03DA033906, PI: Birkett; K08DA037825, PI: Birkett; P30AI117943, PI: D‘Aquila). The research is supported by the SROP program of the Northwestern Graduate School, and the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. of the NIH (U01DA036939, PI: Mustanski; R01DA025548-S1, PI: Mustanski; R03DA033906, PI: Birkett; K08DA037825, PI: Birkett; P30AI117943, PI: D‘Aquila). The research is supported by the SROP program of the Northwestern Graduate School, and the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Keywords

AIDS
HIV
MSM
Networks
Race/ethnicity
Virtual spaces

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Infectious Diseases

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s10461-018-2262-7

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abstract = "Men who have sex with men (MSM), and especially MSM of color, are disproportionately affected by HIV. Previous research shows that MSM have high levels of racial/ethnic homophily (the tendency for people to have sex with others who share the same racial/ethnic identification) in sexual dyads, which may help explain HIV disparities. This study fills a gap in previous research by grounding network data from a cohort study of young MSM in Chicago (RADAR) in the contexts of virtual spaces (VSs) and examining differences in levels of racial/ethnic homophily using multilevel-logistic-regression models. Results show that Grindr differs from other VSs in proportions of racially/ethnically homophilous dyads and by partner racial/ethnic identification. After controlling for general homophily trends, sex partnerships formed on Grindr by Black MSM were significantly less likely to be homophilous than those of White MSM. While racial/ethnic groups differ in likelihood to form homophilous partnerships, this trend varies by VS.",

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An Investigation of Racial and Ethnic Homophily on Grindr Among an Ongoing Cohort Study of YMSM

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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