Recruiting Study of drug use and perceived image by peers among men who have sex with other men

andera18

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Feb 3, 2018
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Hello,

My name is Alec Anderson and I'm a final year student at London South Bank University (LSBU), studying for a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, which is a fancy way of saying a conversion course similar to a BSc in Psychology for people who already have a degree in another subject.
I am carrying out a study to determine whether there is a significant association between recreational drug use by men who have sex with other men and how they feel they are perceived by others on the gay scene. I have created an online survey with questions designed to assess participants' views on these topics. The identity of participants remains anonymous to everyone, including myself. I would welcome the participation of all those interested in taking part.

The study has been approved by the Psychology Division?s Internal Ethics Committee at LSBU.
The survey can be found by clicking on the link below:
https://lsbupsychology.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3DEHj5UBsUvsoHX

The survey should take roughly 15 to 25 minutes to complete and is easy to use. The study is open to all men who have sex with other men aged from 18 and above.

Data collection for this study began in January 2018 and I hope to have obtained all the completed questionnaires by the middle of March, with completion of the study and a write up of the paper set for early May.

Further information about the survey and its purpose can be found in the questionnaire. Or you can contact me at [email protected] or via the Bluelight private messaging system. Many thanks to all those who agree to take part.


Best regards,
Alec Anderson
 
Thank you very much all participants!

I want to say a very big THANK YOU to all who took the trouble and time to complete my survey. I can see that there are still a fair number of people who are in the process of filling in the questionnaire. I'm being advised that I'm going to have to close it in the next day or so in order to tabulate the results. So if anyone is still working on it and wants their data included could you complete it as quickly as you are able please? FYI, I hope to have the study written and signed off in the second half of May and will share my findings on all of the forums (including this one) where I have enlisted participants to take part. Thanks once again.
 
If there's still time I'll come back to answer this. Posted to keep in my post history so I can come back.
 
Rsearch results of 'Study of drug use and perceived image by peers among men who. . .

Hello to all who helped me in my study, in which I looked at the hypothesis that gay men use recreational drugs, at least in part, to self-medicate in response to worries over how they think other men view them out on the gay scene. I apologise, I had intended to show the results to the people who participated by last June, unfortunately events in my life led to a six month delay. However, I have now completed my work and a summary of what the research revealed is shown below:

'I have completed the study in which I asked for volunteers from this forum to participate in a questionnaire about their social activities, use of recreational drugs and self-image. As promised, I am now sharing the results.

Existing studies tend to confirm the notion that recreational drug use among gay men (which is usually higher than in the general population) may be affected by stresses and anxieties associated with belonging to a sexual minority group in a larger heterosexual society. The purpose of this study was to determine whether any stresses and anxieties that gay men potentially face when socializing out on the gay scene among other gay men also encourages them to use recreational drugs and alcohol as a means to cope with worries about being negatively assessed or judged by fellow gay peers as well.

One surprise in my data-set was that my sample did not use drugs at a higher rate than would be expected from population based data. This meant I could only analyse data on alcohol and cannabis use, and not the wider range of ?party? drugs included in the survey.

Higher levels of alcohol use were associated with going to pubs and bars. This, of course, was to be expected! However, alcohol use was not associated with any of the other measures included in the survey, such as self-esteem, body image and fear of negative evaluations from others. It seems to be the case that gay men are not using alcohol to cope with negative feelings about themselves or others.

More frequent use of cannabis was associated with lower scores on the body fat measure (part of the body image scale) and lower scores on fear of negative evaluation. Again, this suggests that cannabis use is not at all related to ?coping? with poor body image or worries about how one is perceived by others. Quite the opposite in fact. Cannabis use is more frequent amongst people who are not concerned about body fat or the opinion of their peers.

One final thing to say is that participants reported very high scores on ?how comfortable they feel? about their sexuality and gender identity. This study also revealed a potential change in the social activities of gay men. With rapid changes in technology and the growth of social media, face-to-face social groups and activities may not be as important now that people create and get involved in online communities.'
 
I love studies that cautiously disprove their hypothesis. Very interesting and intriguing idea, nonetheless.
 
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