es among these populations (Bynum, 1999; Ennet, Bailey, & Federman, 1999).
One recent study that has received special attention found evidence that recent treatment successes that have extended the lives of AIDS patients generated increased optimism among members of the gay community, one of the most at-risk populations for contracting HIV. This optimism, in turn, according to study conducted under the auspices of the University of Southern California, is associated with a retrenchment among younger gay men from the safer sex practices that largely have been credited with the downward trend in HIV-positive diagnoses and the development of AIDS among HIV-positive patients. With the rejection of safer-sex practices, according to the University of southern California study, these younger gay men are engaging in riskier behaviors such as sex with multiple partners and sex without the protection of a condom. Three outcomes of such behavior change are a slowing of the decrease in HIV-positive diagnoses, a slowing of the decrease in the development of AIDS among HIV-positive patients, and a slowing of the reduction in the AIDS death rate (Bynum, 1999). A continuation of these trends holds the potential to reverse completely the gains in the fight against HIV-AIDS.
The slowing of the trends of reduced HIV-positive diagnoses, reduced rates of the development of AIDS among HIV-positive patients, and AIDS death rates could be attributable to several different factors or to a combination of a number of factors. The potential explanation that is both the most compelling and most testable in this early stage of what could be trend reversals, however, is rejection of safer-sex practices and engaging in riskier sexual behaviors among those populations most at-risk for HIV-infection and the development of AIDS. Thus, a research study is proposed to investigate the following question: Is an increase in the willingness to engage in riskier sex...