Psychological predictors of risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among low-income inner-city men: A community-based survey

The present study investigated sensation seeking, future time perspective, and life satisfaction as predictors of risk for HIV infection. One hundred ninety-three men (mean age = 33.2, 93% African-American, 71% unemployed), recruited from an inner-city neighborhood were defined as bring at high-risk for HIV infection if they had: engaged in homosexual activity (9%); injected drugs (9%); had an injection drug using sexual partner (20%); or had a history of sexually transmitted diseases (44%), resulting in 44% of the sample being grouped at lower-risk (n = 85), and 56% at high-risk (n = 108). Discriminant analysis showed that high-risk men were more dissatisfied with their lives, higher in sensation seeking, and less future oriented than lower-risk men, suggesting that risk for HIV infection among inner-city low-income men corresponds to a disadvantaged social status, life dissatisfaction, and a constricted future perspective. HIV prevention efforts directed at low-income men will require attention to these dispositional and socio-cultural factors.