The cognitive structure of the domain of safe and unsafe gay sexual behaviour in Belgium

This study compares the cognitive structure of sexual techniques of safe ve rsus unsafe gay men older than 30 years. Subjects rated 25 sexual technique s by six bipolar adjective scales making up a short version of the semantic differential. Scales measured subjects' perception of the safety and grati fication potential of the sexual techniques. We used cluster analysis, mult idimensional scaling and factor analysis. Subjects reporting no unprotected anal sex with non-steady partners (N = 312) differ from men reporting unsa fe behaviour (N = 19). Safe and unsafe men used different main categories t o structure the domain of sexual behaviour. Within the group of safe men, t he domain of sexual behaviour structured by perceptions of gratification an d safety seem to mirror the epidemiological structuring of sexual technique s using the non-penetration versus penetration, and transmission of body fl uids versus no transmission of fluids dimension. Among risky men, this stru cturing is nor that clearly present. We found different estimations of the level of risk associated with unprotected insertive versus receptive anal s ex in combination with a higher perception of the gratification potential o f the former. Unsafe men seem to make a noticeable difference between their own and their partner's risk and gratification.