The Gay Community Involvement Index: An Exploratory Factor Analysis and Initial Validation of a New Measure of Gay Community Involvement

Minority Stress and Loneliness in a Global Sample of Sexual Minority Adults: The Roles of Social Anxiety, Social Inhibition, and Community Involvement

“…The same relationship was found among Latino-American gay men living with HIV (Ramirez-Valles et al, 2005 ). Community involvement is also negatively associated with concealment motivation and internalized homonegativity (Bissonette & Syzmanski, 2019 ; Foster-Gimbel et al, 2020 ; Frost & Meyer, 2009 ; Kuyper & Fokkema, 2010 ; Velez & Moradi, 2016 ). Moreover, in studies of sexual minority adults in the USA and Hong Kong, associations between marginalization, internalized homonegativity, and poor psychological well-being were lower among people who were higher in various forms of LGBTQ community involvement (Chan & Mak, 2021 ; Salfas et al, 2019 ; Toomey et al, 2011 ; Velez & Moradi, 2016 ; see also Ramirez-Valles et al, 2005 ).…”

Changing Levels of Social Engagement with Gay Men Is Associated with HIV Related Outcomes and Behaviors: Trends in Australian Behavioral Surveillance 1998–2020

“…In the early 1990s, higher levels of social engagement between gay men were associated with the adoption of condom use in response to HIV (Kippax et al, 1992 , 1995 ). Later in the epidemic, higher GSE became associated with the likelihood of reporting condomless anal sex with casual partners (Fergus et al, 2009 ; Foster-Gimbel et al, 2020 ; Van De Ven et al, 2002 ), a higher number of sexual partners (Zablotska et al, 2012 ), binge-drinking (Fisher et al, 2014 ), illicit drug use (Bui et al, 2018 ; Hammoud et al, 2017a , 2018 ), and not consistently using HIV risk reduction strategies, such as strategic positioning or withdrawal, during condomless sex (Kolstee et al, 2020 ). While GSE appears to have become associated with a number of risk factors for HIV in the second and third decades of the HIV epidemic, GSE also continues to be associated with protective factors including HIV testing (Bavinton et al, 2020 ; Keen et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2020 ; Van de Ven et al, 2000 ; Zablotska et al, 2012 ) and PrEP uptake (Keen et al, 2020 ).…”

Indices and Indicators Developed to Evaluate the “Strengthening Community Actions” Mechanism of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion: A Scoping Review

“…The identified indices were 1) community involvement, 68,69 different forms of social participation, 35,39,45,56,61,70-77 social club membership, 40 organizational membership, 78 civic engagement, 33 partnership with the community, 72 and health democracy. 79,80 As another index, gay community involvement was defined as “a new multidimensional measure of the type and intensity of participation in a variety of activities within the gay community.” 68 Two studies introduced “participation” as one of the social capital components, 61,75 and two other studies defined the index in a clear way: “How actively the person has taken part in the activities of formal and informal groups as well as other activities in society during the past 12 months,” 73 and “Sum of the participation proportions of organizations in each community.” 56 In seven studies, the index was measured as an indicator of social capital. 35,43,56,71,73,75,78…”

“…Twenty-one articles were categorized in this group. The identified indices were 1) community involvement, 68,69 different forms of social participation, 35,39,45,56,61,[70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77] social club membership, 40 organizational membership, 78 civic engagement, 33 partnership with the community, 72 and health democracy. 79,80 As another index, gay community involvement was defined as "a new multidimensional measure of the type and intensity of participation in a variety of activities within the gay community."…”

“…79,80 As another index, gay community involvement was defined as "a new multidimensional measure of the type and intensity of participation in a variety of activities within the gay community." 68 Two studies introduced "participation" as one of the social capital components, 61,75 and two other studies defined the index in a clear way: "How actively the person has taken part in the activities of formal and informal groups as well as other activities in society during the past 12 months," 73 and "Sum of the participation proportions of organizations in each community." 56 In seven studies, the index was measured as an indicator of social capital.…”