Safe-Sex Knowledge, Sexual Behavior, and Drug Use A thesis

egular or serial girlfriends, though not necessarily. Passively closeted men less often
replace a part of their orientation with a heterosexual feature of sexuality (such as a wife).
These men are more apt to avoid discussions or situations that would risk exposure, and
more likely to be vague or non-responsive in efforts to conceal identity.
In this study, the target population is MSM’s (men who have sex with men) in
Kern County, California. Therefore the intended population of study includes openly gay
men, actively closeted men, and passively closeted men. Note that the defining
characteristic of this population is based upon behavior, not identity. The relationship
between behavior and identity is important and ties in a variety of other factors; this shall
be pursued in another study using these collected data. It was important to make certain
that the sample included men from all of these categories to effectively represent this
population.
Starting with an initial pool of 20 gay men through passive recruiting (advertising
with contact information provided) at the Community Action Partnership of Kern, the
RDS sampling was started. Each respondent was offered a reward (from among
flashlights, movie tickets, etc.) for each additional qualified MSM who contacted us and
completed a questionnaire. That respondent, too, was offered a reward for completion of
his questionnaire.
This double incentive process increases the likelihood of participation by those
who would otherwise (a) not be contacted and (b) refuse to answer. Also, the referrer has
an incentive to not only alert the others to the survey, but to follow up and make sure they
participate. More robust rewards tend to be more effective, but given budget
considerations, the rewards offered were targeted toward the economic status level and
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