Resilience as a Research Framework and as a Cornerstone of Prevention Research for Gay and Bisexual Men: Theory and Evidence

Abstract

This commentary presents the content and results of a recent symposium held to discuss how resiliencies among gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men, could inform HIV prevention interventions. We outline the argument for including resiliencies in prevention work and present a critique of the deficitbased approached to public health research as it applies to this line of inquiry. The commentary makes the case that HIV prevention work would be more efficacious if it were designed to incorporate naturally occurring resiliencies that manifest among gay male communities rather than primarily using interventions that address vulnerabilities among men who continue to reside in high risk contexts. The commentary concludes by listing a set of resiliency variables and constructs proposed at the meeting that could be tested in theoretically-based investigations to raise resiliencies among gay and bisexual men thereby lowering HIV risks in this population.Keywords Resilience Á MSM health Á Gay and bisexual men Á TheoryIn the summer of 2011, The Fenway Institute of Boston and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Health Research convened a meeting of many of the thought leaders in the field of Gay and Bisexual men's health to discuss how resilience among gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men (henceforth referred to simply as gay and bisexual men), could inform HIV prevention interventions. The idea behind the meeting was to outline ways in which resiliencies could be used to move the field forward towards the abatement or elimination of health disparities within this population. The primary goals of this meeting were to raise interest in the study of resilience as a way to improve health outcomes among gay and bisexual men, to learn from community-based programs that were already using resilience-based approaches in their work, and to begin conceptualizing how researchers could adapt and use a resilience-based framework in their study of HIV and other health disparities in gay and bisexual men. We also critically reviewed deficit-based approach to health, focusing on assumptions underlying these methods.Relative to the field of prevention research, communitybased organizations for gay and bisexual men have better recognized that focusing on strengths, resilience, and other protective factors can bring about positive individual and community-level results. However, few community programs have had the resources to test or evaluate their work. To begin to bridge this divide, the meeting organizers brought together leaders in research as well as key informants from resilience-based community programs including Manifest Love, the Harlem United Community AIDS Center (www.harlemunited.org), Easton Mountain (www. eastonmountain.com), Life Lube (www.lifelube.org), and others who have already been using strength-based approaches to promote health among gay and bisexual men. After a day of sharing methods, challenges, questions and results f...

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