Member Checking

Member checking was used as a strategy to ensure credibility in the study. Member checking involves discussing emerging codes, categories, and themes with participants. To conduct member checking, I created a one-page bulleted list of notes from each semi-structured, in-depth interview, and sent the notes to participants within two weeks after the interview. Participants were asked to verify that their ideas and feelings from the interview were correctly noted, and if they believed any data was misinterpreted or misrepresented, to schedule a follow up interview for clarification. All participants who reviewed the notes from their interview

73

believed that the emerging themes from the analysis; as well as, their ideas, experiences, and feelings had been correctly captured.

3.9.2 Peer debriefing

Peer debriefing was another strategy used to ensure the credibility and rigor of the research process. My advisor, faculty mentors in the fields of information science and health behavior, and other doctoral students’ familiar with HIV protective and risk reduction behaviors and/or information behaviors served as peers. I consulted peers throughout the research process to discuss the emerging themes; additionally, this process of peer debriefing was useful for controlling against my potential biases.

3.9.3 Research positionality

I had many experiences that were relevant to the study, and had the potential to influence the interpretation of data. Prior to beginning their doctoral studies, I worked as a medical

librarian at a consumer health library that specialized in providing HIV/AIDS information to people living with HIV, and those at high risk. I worked as a certified HIV tester and counselor in the city of Philadelphia for two (2) years, facilitated HIV/AIDS education programs for youth under the age of 30 and women living with HIV (Youth TEACH, Women’s TEACH) centered on finding and accessing high-quality HIV/AIDS information, and worked as a certified HIV/AIDS Educator for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. I was mindful of these preconceptions during analysis of interview data, especially during the coding process, and used memoing and member checking to center the data/voice of the participants. Additionally, the use of the constant comparative method and peer debriefing were used to reduce my biases and preconceptions.

74

3.10 Conclusion

This chapter presented the mixed methods, sequential explanatory design employed in this study. The chapter addressed the research questions and the community-based participatory research design of the study. The ethical issues associated with protecting the confidentiality of study participants was discussed. The data collection and analysis strategies were presented (e.g. online, self-administered survey and semi-structured interviews). Finally, the steps taken to ensure the validity and reliability of the study were addressed in the last section.

75

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Introduction

This chapter presents the results of the surveys and the semi-structured interviews. The surveys were conducted from December 2018 to May 2019. The semi-structured interviews were conducted from May 2019 to June 2019 following the completion of the survey data analysis. The chapter reports findings that answer the research questions of the study. The survey results present the HIV/AIDS information behaviors of YBGBM living in the state of North Carolina, and the motivators and deterrents of the adoption of HIV protective and risk reduction behaviors among YBGBM in the study. The interview results present a more robust picture of the

HIV/AIDS information behaviors of YBGBM, and how those behaviors occur and shift during their engagement along the HIV prevention and care continua, and as they make decisions related to the adoption of HIV protective and risk reduction behaviors. The interview sample consisted of 22 survey respondents including: individuals with an HIV-positive diagnosis (9), PrEP users (7), and non-users of PrEP (6).

4.1 Sociodemographic data

The demographics of the sample (N=83) are described in Table 8. The average survey respondent’s age was 29.2 years old (SD = 3.5, Range 19-34). The sample consisted

disproportionately of men aged 26-34 (84.3%), and primarily of young, Black men who identify as gay (80.73%). More than half of the survey respondents (55.42%) had less than a bachelor’s degree, and were employed either part-time or full-time (74.7%). Most respondents had health

76

insurance (67.5%) with the bulk of those insured having private health insurance (47%) and Medicaid (15.6%); 32.5% of respondents were uninsured. About one-third (34%) of survey respondents reported that their annual household income was less than $20,000, and 36% had an annual household income between $20,000 and $39,000. The bulk of respondents reside in urban counties (64%), 21.6% reside in rural counties, and 14.4% reside in regional cities and suburban counties.9 _{HIV-status was also asked (participants self-reported their status). Forty-three-point} four percent (n= 36) of respondents reported being HIV negative, 41% reported being HIV- positive (n=34), and 15.6% were unsure of their HIV-status (n=13).

4.1.1 Technology usage

Questions from the NCI HINTS were used to investigate the technology usage of study participants. Survey respondents were asked to identify: the medium through which they connect to the Internet (e.g. a wireless network, a cellular network, broadband, dial-up telephone line), the devices they use to access the internet (e.g. desktop computer, laptop computer, mobile phone, gaming device), and the frequency at which they use the devices to access the Internet measured as “daily, sometimes, and never” was also assessed. Most participants connect to the Internet through a wireless network (47.86%) or a cellular network (37.86%). Among

participants who reported accessing the Internet using a desktop computer (70%), most them used a desktop computer at work (73.22%), at home (62.07%), or a library (53.45%) most often (daily and sometimes). Among participants who connected to the Internet through a laptop computer (82.5%), participants most often used a laptop at home (98.44%), at work (70%), or at a college/university (61.37%). Participants who reported access the Internet using a mobile

9 _{Classifications of rural, urban, and regional city and suburban counties based on data from the NC Rural Center}

77

phone or gaming device (95%), reported they used their mobile phone daily to access the internet (100%) and 63.24% used a gaming device (e.g. PlayStation, X Box, or Nintendo) to connect to the Internet.