Abstract
Religious spaces have proven to be effective sites of health intervention among Black Americans. Less is known about how religious environments impact the health of subgroups of Black Americans, specifically Black men who have sex with men (MSM). Using data from the Promoting Our Worth, Equality, and Resilience study, we explored the factor structure of a 10-item religious environment scale among Black MSM (N = 2,482). Exploratory factor analysis revealed three distinct factors: (1) visibility of MSM, (2) structural support, and (3) structural homonegativity. The relationship between Black MSM and their religious environments is complex and should be investigated using measures that accurately reflect their lived experiences.
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Data Availability
More information regarding the data analyzed in this manuscript can be found in Matthews et al., 2019.
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Acknowledgements
We express our appreciation to the thousands of participants who donated their time in our research, and to the Center for Black Equity for welcoming our research team into the community of Black Prides across the country. We extend a special thanks to the dozens of service organizations who provided HIV testing services for our study participants.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research (Grant R01NR013865), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Grant R21AI120777), and the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant T32MH094174).
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The original study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh’s IRB, and secondary analysis of the data for this manuscript was deemed exempt by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill IRB.
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Eden, T.M., Smallwood, S.W. & Matthews, D.D. Using a Measurement Model to Reconceptualize the Church Experiences of Black Men who have Sex with Men. J Relig Health 62, 2213–2225 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01671-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01671-w