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Partner Meeting Contexts and Risky Behavior in College Students’ Other-Sex and Same-Sex Hookups
The Journal of Sex Research
Abstract
We analyzed a sample of 12,065 hookup encounters among college students at 22 colleges and universities in the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) to explore how partner meeting locales may influence college students’ risky behavior when hookup partners are met in those contexts. For other-sex encounters, meeting in bars or at parties, through common interest groups or history, and (for women) at dormitories was associated with binge drinking during encounters, while meeting online and (for women) in public was associated with reduced binge drinking during encounters. Unprotected sex during other-sex encounters was more common when partners were met in public and less common with partners met in dormitories. Binge drinking and marijuana use during or just prior to encounters was associated with an increased risk of unprotected sex and other substance use. Marijuana use and unprotected sex during encounters was more common when students knew their hookup partner better or had hooked up with the partner before, while binge drinking was associated with hooking up with less familiar partners. Associations of meeting contexts with behavior were explained by the locale’s association with institutional and personal trust, social scripts, and selection into certain contexts by students with a risk-taking personality.
... 2009). Prav tako se je uživanje alkohola povezovalo s priložnostnimi spolnimi odnosi z ljudmi, ki so bili udeležencem manj poznani (Kuperberg in Padgett 2017). Najpogostejše situacije, v katerih se uživanje alkohola in priložnostni spolni odnosi pojavljajo sočasno, so zabave, bari (npr. ...
... Prekomerno uživanje alkohola se je v nekaterih raziskavah povezovalo z nezaščitenimi spolnimi odnosi (Rehm idr. 2012;Kuperberg in Padgett 2017). Mladostniki pod vplivom alkohola niso imeli zadržkov pred priložnostnim spolnim odnosom, hkrati pa jim je pogovor o uporabi kondoma pov-zročal nelagodje, zato so se mu raje izognili (Hammarlund, Lundgren in Nyström 2008). ...
... Marihuano je pred priložnostnim spolnim odnosom užival manjši odstotek udeležencev kot alkohol, uživanje marihuane pa se je pozitivno povezovalo z uživanjem alkohola, uživanjem drugih drog in nezaščitenimi spolnimi odnosi (Fielder in Carey 2010b;Kuperberg in Padgett 2017). Tudi uporabniki drugih prepovedanih psihoaktivnih snovi (prevladovali so uporabniki heroina) so poročali o nezaščitenih priložnostnih spolnih odnosih (van Empelen idr. ...
... The OCSLS is the only dataset of this scale to provide this level of detailed information about college students' dating practices, types of sexual activity, and standards for sexual behavior, all of which are needed to answer our research questions. Although our findings are not generalizable beyond those who took the survey, given the large sample size recruited from 21 institutions and the near-100 percent response rate, we believe, like other scholars, that they reflect the practices of a significant cross-section of the US student population (Allison & Risman, 2013;Kettrey, 2018;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). ...
... We controlled for alcohol consumption and drug use before or during the date, given previous research identified the influence of alcohol on sexual activity (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Morr & Mongeau, 2004;Reid et al., 2015). For alcohol consumption, respondents were asked to indicate how many beers, glasses of wine, mixed drinks or shots, and malt beverages they consumed before or during their most recent date. ...
... For one, as previously mentioned, the OCSLS survey data comes from a convenience sample, which means it is a nonrandom sample and therefore not generalizable. With that being said, given the large sample size with a near-perfect response rate, we believe that the data set reflects the attitudes and practices of a significant cross-section of the college student population (Allison & Risman, 2013;Kettrey, 2018;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). Extra credit was offered to students who took the survey, which decreases selection bias (Allison & Ralston, 2018). ...
Despite increasing egalitarian values expressed among college students, dating is still characterized by traditional gender roles. Because traditional dating scripts are predominantly recited and enacted to the extent that men initiate and pay, there are assumptions that the sexual processes have not changed. This study investigates the sexual processes of male-initiated and female-initiated dates among college students in the US. Using data from the Online College Social Life Survey, we ask whether traditional components of the dating script explain traditional sexual outcomes (non-genital contact), as well as whether alternative dating scripts explain nontraditional sexual outcomes (genital contact). Using multivariate logistic regression models, we found that violations of the traditional script are associated with higher odds of genital contact for male- and female-initiated dates; however, the predictors of genital contact for female-initiated dates are not the same as those for male-initiated dates. This study highlights the variability of sexual scripts in dating practices, suggesting that the sexual scripts associated with dates are not as homogenous as we have previously believed.
... Among casual sexual encounters, college hookups occupy a unique position because of social expectations of 'the college experience,' which can include expectations of hooking up as part of a broader partying 'social script' associated with college (Wade 2017, Kuperberg andPadgett 2017). Social scripts are a set of expectations that individuals have about how a given encounter or situation will unfold, and can be shaped by demographic characteristics and social contexts, including the behavior and experiences of peers and family (Kuperberg and Padgett 2017). ...
... Among casual sexual encounters, college hookups occupy a unique position because of social expectations of 'the college experience,' which can include expectations of hooking up as part of a broader partying 'social script' associated with college (Wade 2017, Kuperberg andPadgett 2017). Social scripts are a set of expectations that individuals have about how a given encounter or situation will unfold, and can be shaped by demographic characteristics and social contexts, including the behavior and experiences of peers and family (Kuperberg and Padgett 2017). Expectations to party and hookup while in college may directly motivate students to hookup so they can get the 'full college experience,' and may encourage substance use, which can also motivate hookups. ...
... Sexual script theory suggests that people navigate a set of sexual 'scripts', a type of social script consisting of a set of expectations and norms about how sexual encounters, in this case hookups, will unfold (Simon and Gagnon 1987;Wiederman 2015). The social script of college as a time for sexual experimentation is related to the college hookup script, as is the social script of substance experimentation in college; nearly half of college hookups involve binge drinking during or right before the encounter, and over 1 in 10 included marijuana consumption, which has also been found to be linked to an increased likelihood of unprotected sex and hookups with lesser known partners (Kuperberg and Padgett 2017). Substance use may therefore be related to motivations to hookup at a higher rate than other casual sex encounters, because it is an established part of the college hookup script; substance based motivations for hookups may also be especially common among those motivated by the college expectation 'script.' ...
Hookups are a normative experience for college students with 72% of college students reporting hooking up by their Senior year. Although there is over a decade of research on hookups, what motivates college students to participate in hookups is not clear, with prior research focused mostly on psychological rather than social motivations, and differences by gender, but not exploring whether students differ in hookup motivations by other factors. This study explored whether students hooked up and hookup motivations among a random sample of 180 heterosexual college students at a Southeast university, and differences by demographic characteristics, marital age expectations, and parent and peers’ marital status. Results showed the majority of participants hookup up to feel sexual pleasure, with a significant minority motivated by relationship formation and the ‘college experience.’ Significant predictors of hookup motivations include gender, mother’s education, religiosity, parent’s coupled status, and friends’ marital status, while race and age differences were not significant. Results of a latent class analyses showed five distinct classes of social hookup motivations: older and younger abstainers, relationship seekers, pleasure pathway, and college scripts. Implications for future research are discussed.
... In fact, past research has indicated college students prefer to hook up with partners they know . One analysis of OCSLS data indicated this is especially the case for women who hook up with samesex partners, as they tend to report knowing their hook up partners "very well" (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). However, another analysis of OCSLS data suggested men who identify as gay are typically less familiar with their hookup partners and engage in more anonymous hookups than their straight counterparts (Barrios & Lundquist, 2012). ...
... Alcohol, however, may not be as common in same-sex hookup culture, at least among young men. One analysis of OCSLS data indicated approximately half the percentage of males hooking up with same-sex partners, compared to those hooking up with other-sex partners, reported binge drinking before their most recent hookup (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). The difference in binge drinking between women hooking up with same-or other-sex partners did not significantly differ in Kuperberg and Padgett's analysis. ...
... In fact, one analysis of OCSLS data found that, compared to young men who identified as straight, those who identified as gay expressed stronger interest in relationships (versus hookups) as well as the greater desire for more relationship opportunities on their campuses (Barrios & Lundquist, 2012). This may explain why both male and female students are more likely to meet same-sex partners online (as opposed to campus settings) than they are to meet other-sex partners online (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017, 2015. ...
Contrary to popular media claims that college hookup culture has made romantic relationships obsolete, research indicates many college students see hookups as a pathway to relationships. However, relatively few college hookups actually produce relationships. This study used a sex market framework to explore correlates of college students’ interest in future hookups and relationships with hookup partners across other-sex and same-sex hookup markets. Using Online College Social Life Survey data (N = 10,141) we explored variables classified in the following contexts that may shape choices in a sex market: demographic characteristics, the hookup dyad, the hookup event, post-hookup reactions, attitudes toward hookup partners, and hookup opportunity structures. Logistic regression analyses indicated post-hookup reactions (e.g., satisfaction, emotional responses) explained the highest percentage of variance in interest in a subsequent hookup (56% to 61% across markets) and interest in a relationship (35% to 45% across markets). Although past research suggests there are different markets for other- and same-sex hookups, these findings suggest similarity in contexts that may shape interest in relationship formation among other-sex and same-sex hookup markets. Suggestions for fostering positive relationship development on campuses are discussed.
... Relatively more recently, within the past 30 years there has been a revival in research dedicated to this topic, particularly exploring several negative or risky behaviors among college students. Research has found that there are misperceptions of social norms when it comes to alcohol use (Perkins, 2002;Suls & Green, 2003), sexual behaviors (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Lambert et al., 2003;Paul et al., 2000), smoking and illegal drug use (Hines et al., 2002), and binge eating (Crandall, 1988) among undergraduates. These misperceptions of social norms can contribute to negative outcomes, and individuals may then regret or debate the decisions that led to those outcomes (Sargent & Newman, 2021). ...
... As with other behaviors (such as sexual behaviors, alcohol and drug use, and binge eating) that were explored in past literature using the concept of pluralistic ignorance (e.g., Hines et al., 2002;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Suls & Green, 2003), students believe that their own behaviors are less frequent than those of their college peers. Thus, the current study extends the idea of pluralistic ignorance to more socially positive behaviors like participating in campus activities. ...
Co-curricular activities have been shown to impact many measures of academic success, such as academic self-confidence, leadership abilities, identity development, personal development, and student thriving. Borrowing from established research paradigms on pluralistic ignorance, the current study sought to explore whether first-year and senior students' perceptions of themselves and others vary when it comes to attending and participating in campus activities and whether sex has an impact on those perceptions. Using data from the 2018 National Survey of Student Engagement, the study included 10,512 students attending 33 institutions. The results suggest significant differences across the sexes and within reference group (self vs. other) for attending campus activities and participating in co-curricular activities. These findings can help guide faculty, advisors, and administrators to better understand how students' perceptions of peer co-curricular activities might relate to their own, and how those perceptions might affect their behavior positively and negatively.
... This emic perspective that sex early on is considered a bad strategy for the development of a long-term relationship is also identified by Regnerus (2017), Bogle (2007) and Garcia et al. (2012). Most saw Sequence 5 as possible or probable (39/50) because it fits the model of the 'hook up culture' that is said to be 'normative' in US colleges (Bogle, 2008;Kuperberg and Padgett, 2017;Wade, 2017). The ambiguous attitude young adults have with being identified with the hook up culture is expressed in the 'slutty' and 'one-night stand' comments. ...
... Yet, even when they rate this sequence almost as probable as Sequence 4, many made negative comments towards early sex, mentioning that early sex does not help to consolidate relationship. The comments also refer to this sequence as an extension form of the 'hook-up' culture, referred to previously in the analysis of the US comments (Bogle, 2008;Kuperberg and Padgett, 2017;Wade, 2017). In any case, the Spanish informants considered Sequence 6 as the third favorite, which give us a sense of the relevance of the hook-up culture within the normative construction of relationship. ...
This study provides an emic, ethnographic and cross-cultural view of courtship practices in the ‘modern’ world. There are limits to our ability to generalize our conclusions to posit a global process. As such this study is suggestive of a larger movement towards new forms of courtship that favor individual autonomy, the pursuit to satisfy personal desires, even at the expense of interpersonal interests. Ilouz and Finkleman (2009) referred to this shift as a move from a ‘premodern modal configurations’ to a ‘modern modal configuration’ of love and desire. Our findings support the theoretical and interview data of the above study and work by many other researchers (e.g., Giddens 2000; Ilouz 2018, 2012; Jankowiak 2008; Munck et al. 2016; Regnerus 2017). Consequently, we have confidence that the trajectory from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ courtship processes is a global process. Giddens observed that sex, as a result of contraceptives, has become ‘fully autonomous’ and become a kind of ‘art form’ (Giddens, 1981: 27). Regnerus (2017) builds on Giddens' work by showing how sex, love, and marriage have separated from each other, to the extent that sex is construed as an independent feature of the individual and therefore not part of a coupled, interdependent, construct such as love or family. Sex, as Regnerus writes, has become ‘the malleable property of the individual’ (Ibid.: 7). As our study supports these positions we have confidence that our findings, if extended across more cultures would not be substantially different, only more refined.
... Given alcohol is often a catalyst for sexual behavior (e.g., Fielder, Walsh, Carey, & Carey, 2014), it is not surprising that up to 64% of college students indicated they were drinking during a hookup (Fielder & Carey, 2010). In addition, with the conception of meeting partners online, the method with which a person meets their partner may also influence drinking during a sexual hookup (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017) because of the level of perceived familiarity from exploring online profiles. Finally, the locations of the sexual hookup may also influence the level of intoxication, with bars and parties being locations associated with heavy drinking (Bellis et al., 2010;Harford, Wechsler, & Seibring, 2002). ...
... Despite the possibility of erroneous online dating profiles, there may be even less knowledge about partners met at bars/parties. As evidence, individuals who met their partner at bars/parties reported knowing their partners less well than those who met through common interests or personal recommendations (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). Thus, an empirical question remains about how the development of online dating compares to more established methods of meeting sexual hookup partners. ...
The development of online dating has created a cultural shift in how emerging adults approach dating. The present study examined retrospective and event-level associations between alcohol, online dating, and sexual hookups among a sample of single, postcollege women. Participants completed baseline and 24 electronic daily diary surveys on alcohol use, sexual behavior, and method for meeting their sexual partners. We examined the influence of alcohol on sexual hookups, and how method of meeting a partner, and location prior to the hookup influenced level of intoxication during a sexual hookup. There was a within-person effect of alcohol on likelihood of engaging in a sexual hookup whereby hookups were more likely on days when women reported higher levels of intoxication relative to their average drinking. Spending time at bar/party prior to a sexual hookup was associated with higher levels of intoxication prior to a sexual hookup relative to being at other locations. Measured in the daily diary surveys, meeting a sexual hookup partner online was associated with lower levels of intoxication during the hookup relative to when meeting at bars/parties, even when including location just prior to the hookup in the model. The baseline retrospective analyses also indicated that meeting a partner online was associated with drinking less frequently before a sexual hookup relative to meeting a partner at a bar/party. Interventions to address alcohol use, method for meeting a partner, and location prior to hookups could be effective in decreasing potential negative consequences of alcohol-related sexual behavior in emerging adult women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... We measured the number of drinks the participant had consumed before or during the hookup by totaling responses to questions about number of beers, glasses of wine, mixed drinks or shots, and malt beverages (Smirnoff ice, Bacardi breeze, Zima, etc.). In the latent class analysis, these were divided into those who did not drink, those who drank moderately or those who binge drank, measured as four or more drinks for women and five or more for men, using cutoffs from prior research on binge drinking in hookups (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). Whether the participant used drugs was measured by the question "What drugs did you use before or during that occasion (check all that apply)?" ...
... Other findings also call into question the sample selection methods of researchers seeking to examine men on "the down low"; heterosexually-identified men knew their partners better than those with other identities, indicating these were not necessarily the random hookups described in past studies that relied on, for instance, samples of men who hooked up with men in public places. Research has found that students who knew their partners better tended to take more risks such as unprotected sex (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017), indicating the importance of studying encounters among heterosexually identified men who have sex with men they know well, which may not be captured via more commonly used methods of recruitment that focus on anonymous hookups. Our fifth research question also asked whether these encounters were a result of sexual assault, but we do not find support for a higher rate of sexual assault among those with a heterosexual identity. ...
Individuals who identify as heterosexual but engage in same-sex sexual behavior fascinate both researchers and the media. We analyzed the Online College Social Life Survey dataset of over 24,000 undergraduate students to examine students whose last hookup was with a same-sex partner (N = 383 men and 312 women). The characteristics of a significant minority of these students (12% of men and 25% of women) who labelled their sexual orientation "heterosexual" differed from those who self-identified as "homosexual," "bisexual," or "uncertain." Differences among those who identified as heterosexual included more conservative attitudes, less prior homosexual and more prior heterosexual sexual experience, features of the hookups, and sentiments about the encounter after the fact. Latent class analysis revealed six distinctive "types" of heterosexually identified students whose last hookup was with a same-sex partner. Three types, comprising 60% of students, could be classified as mostly private sexual experimentation among those with little prior same-sex experience, including some who did not enjoy the encounter; the other two types in this group enjoyed the encounter, but differed on drunkenness and desire for a future relationship with their partner. Roughly, 12% could be classified as conforming to a "performative bisexuality" script of women publicly engaging in same-sex hookups at college parties, and the remaining 28% had strong religious practices and/or beliefs that may preclude a non-heterosexual identity, including 7% who exhibited "internalized heterosexism." Results indicate several distinctive motivations for a heterosexual identity among those who hooked up with same-sex partners; previous research focusing on selective "types" excludes many exhibiting this discordance.
... Psychoactive substances can negatively affect the ability to use and negotiate condom use or may even impair the assessment of a sexual partner's potential risks [8,[25][26][27]. This risk can increase due to socio-cultural factors, such as hookups with different partners each night, deemed as a way to have sex without the need to invest emotionally in a relationship [28]. Mobile phone applications like Tinder, which has about 10 million daily users, have boosted these one-night stand behaviors. ...
Consistent condom use is recognized as one of the most effective strategies to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Despite their effectiveness, condoms remain fairly well used among younger people. The conception of appropriate measures to change behaviors needs a deep understanding of the factors underlying poor adherence to condom use. This study aims to identify the predictors of condom use among college students. A cross-sectional, correlational, and predictive study was conducted involving a convenience sample of 1946 university students, with an average age of 21 years (20.74 ± 2.32). Pender’s Health Promotion Model (HPM) was used as a conceptual and methodological framework to understand the relationship between the predictors of condom use. An explanatory theoretical model of condom use behavior was established using path analysis. Condom use among young people is infrequent, with only 39.4% of respondents reporting consistent use. Perceived benefits, positive feelings, and interpersonal influences emerged as variables with the most explicitly positive influence on the commitment to condom use, a trend confirmed for both sexes. Commitment was the strongest predictor of condom use behavior (β = 0.580; p < 0.001). Pender’s HPM is effective in explaining the relationships between the predictors of condom use.
... The organizational arrangements of the drinking context (Hirsch & Khan, 2021) or the alcohol policies operative within these spaces (Graham et al., 2014) can operate as a 'social power' influencing the sexual and intoxicated behaviors that take place there (Johnston & Longhurst, 2010). For example, college campuses and specifically college fraternity parties, have been viewed as social settings within which rigidly defined gender arrangements are present, where heavy alcohol consumption occurs, where sexual encounters take place, and where the risk of sexual assault is high (Armstrong et al., 2006;Benson et al., 2007;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Sanday, 2007;Sweeney, 2011). Because alcohol tends to be allowed in college fraternity but not sorority parties, some intoxicated sexual encounters, hookups, and cases of sexual assault tend more often to take place in the male-controlled spaces of fraternities. ...
Social research on alcohol and sexual encounters has tended to be siloed into several different research endeavors, each addressing separate aspects of wanted and unwanted sexual encounters. While sociologists have focused on the patterns of social interaction, status competition, and emotional hierarchies of sexual encounters, they have left the role of alcohol intoxication largely unexamined. Conversely, the two dominant approaches to sexual encounters within alcohol research, the theories of alcohol myopia and alcohol expectancy, while focusing on alcohol have tended to take little account of the socio-relational dynamics and gendered meanings involved in those encounters. Our aim in this theoretical paper is to begin to bring together some of the concepts from these different research strands in examining how the social processes of intoxication potentially impact heteronormative sexual scripts and hence notions of femininity and masculinity among cisgender, heterosexual women and men. Our discussion is focused on the concepts of ritual and scripts; power, status, and hierarchies; and socio-spatial contexts, which are central to an understanding of the gendered and embodied social practices that take place within intoxicated sexual events; the emotional nature of the socio-spatial contexts within which they occur; and the socio-structural conditions that frame these events.
... The age group of 20-24 years old comprises the majority of college students, which have been identified as a high-risk population with an increased prevalence of sexual risk-taking behaviors (Habel et al., 2018;Katavić et al., 2020). raised concerns that sex with casual partners may lead to a higher risk of STDs (Ann Lyons, 2017; Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Lu et al., 2009) and have a detrimental effect on the mental health of young adults (Christianson et al., 2003;Townsend & Wasserman, 2011). A survey on 'sex differences in emotional reactions in sexual hookups among college students' reported that, when women engaged in casual sexual relations, they expressed worry and vulnerability, and "the more significant number of partners was associated with increased worry-vulnerability felt by women" (Townsend & Wasserman, 2011). ...
Knowledge of sexual and reproductive health is believed to improve healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors, and decrease sexual risk-taking behaviors. Casual sexual relationships, such as one-night stand relationships, have become pervasive practices among heterosexual college students in the United States, despite imposing negative consequences on individuals’ sexual and reproductive health outcomes. This study employed a cross-sectional method to explore the relationship between the knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and a belief in one-night stand relationships among 804 university students in the United States. Participants answered a questionnaire from the World Health Organization, administrated through Qualtrics software. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and logistic regression analyses were performed. Significant findings were reported by unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios with 95% CI. The findings of this research showed that there was a positive relationship between the level of knowledge and a belief in a one-night stand relationship. The findings also showed that male students are more likely to report a belief in one-night stand relationships compared to female students. In addition, a large number of students did not receive information about condom use, and there was a significant negative correlation between being religious and a belief in one-night stands. This study offers insight into the inadequacy of sexual health knowledge among university students. It also suggests that gender-specific knowledge should be a necessary part of the sexual and reproductive health education programs. Clinical and public health implications are discussed.
... Although not in the road traffic environment, previous research has highlighted various ways that the context in which people engage in sexual activity intersects with sexual risks. For example, Kuperberg et al (2017) demonstrated that women who met either male or female partners in public and men who met female partners in public were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours such as unprotected sex. In a study with men who have sex with men, it was found that locations where men may meet for sex such as bathhouses and parks may also influence risky sexual behaviours (Grov et al., 2013). ...
Sexual activity while driving is a risky behaviour frequently found across media. However, much is unknown about the practices and roles that dyadic occupants of vehicles (i.e. a driver and passenger) perform when engaging in sexual activity while driving. To cover this gap, a content analysis of sexually explicit media (SEM) was conducted on a sample of 208 videos taken from Pornhub.com. The videos portrayed a naturalistic driving situation of a driver of a moving vehicle engaging in sexual activity with a passenger. Videos were coded for sexual behaviours and characteristics of the vehicle occupants (gender and role). Drivers were generally male, while passengers were female. A range of sexual activities while driving were coded, including oral sex, unclothed and clothed masturbation, varying levels of nudity, and ejaculation. Drivers appear to be the focus of sexual attention, as they are generally the ones receiving sexual acts from the passenger, and predominantly ejaculating. Additionally, female passengers perform oral sex on drivers more often than male passengers, and female vehicle occupants tend to have greater levels of nudist exposure than males. This study highlights the complexities of sexual activity while driving and patterns for consideration when developing interventions.
... College students are particularly vulnerable to these types of high-risk sexual behaviors spurred by hookup culture (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017), permissive drinking cultures on college/university campuses (Kilwein et al., 2017), and limited access to contraceptives and accessible information on STI prevention and reduction across universities (Eastman-Mueller et al., 2016). Empirical research remains limited in its investigations of the relationship between psychological distress and sexual behavior that place individuals at risk of harm to their health. ...
Emerging adults experience increased morbidity as a result of psychological distress and risky sexual behavior. This study examines how sexual behaviors (e.g., condom use inconsistency and past year STI history) differ among emerging adults with low, moderate, and high psychological distress. Participants are 251,254 emerging adults attending colleges and universities in the United States who participated in the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Findings suggest a dose-response relationship between psychological distress, condom use inconsistency, and past STI history, such that an association between greater psychological distress and condom use inconsistency and/or past year history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
... While some scholars have found that the interpersonal trust developed through partner familiarity makes students more comfortable in negotiating condom use (Lewis et al., 2012), others have found that the interpersonal trust makes them more willing to engage in risky sexual behaviors such as penetrative sex without condoms (A. Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). ...
Hookups, i.e., short-term sexual encounters with no expectations of relational commitment, are commonplace in American college campuses. Even though a substantial number of students engage in hookups involving non-penetrative sexual acts such as kissing and genital touching, scholarly attention has been skewed toward those students who engage in riskier sexual behaviors such as protected and unprotected sexual intercourse during hookups. The present study addresses this gap by identifying individual-, event-, and hookup partner-level factors that distinguish students who engage in non-penetrative, protected penetrative, and unprotected penetrative hookups. 318 college students who had at least one hook up experience in their lives were recruited for this study. 131 students reported their most recent hookup being non-penetrative in nature, while 129 reported having protected penetrative sex, and 58 had unprotected penetrative sex. Results showed that dating anxiety increased the odds of engaging in non-penetrative hookups while sexual permissiveness, number of sexual partners, sexual attraction toward hookup partners, and sexting hookup partners increased the odds of protected penetrative hookups. Homosexual students and students who watched porn more frequently were most likely to engage in unprotected penetrative hookups. Implications of these results on college policies regarding student health are discussed.
... Since then, a number of studies have investigated other precedents and antecedents of such hook-ups (Fielder & Carey, 2010;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Owen et al., 2010). ...
This study examines the effect of seven demographic factors (gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, seniority in school, place of residence, and relationship status) that predict US-based college students’ likelihood of using mobile dating applications (MDAs) such as Tinder to find sexual partners for hooking up. The study also includes mobile dating-specific predictor variables: college students’ previous engagement with MDAs and other intentions they have for using MDAs. Results show that students who identify themselves as non-religious, use MDAs for distraction and identity experimentation, use a greater number of MDAs, and are dissatisfied with their use of MDAs are more likely to use these applications for hook-ups compared to others. A significant variance in heterosexual and non-heterosexual male and female college students’ likelihood of hooking up using MDAs is also found.
... A number of studies concerning preventive behaviour in sexual relationships have shown that people are systematically less likely to use a condom in stable and longer-term relationships than in unstable relationships (Camargo & Bousfield, 2009;Hicks et al., 2017;Rojas-Murcia et al., 2015;Xiao et al., 2010). Many of these studies have explained these results by arguing that trust in the sexual partner is the factor that determines condom use (Bwsse, 2007;Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017;Skidmore & Hayter, 2000;Zinn, 2008) An additional explanation relates to the representations people hold about romantic relationships, based on sharedness, attachment, and communality (Rai & Fiske, 2011). The use of condoms in stable sexual relationships might suggest a feeling of doubt regarding the partner´s sexual history (Tamayo et al., 2001), thereby breaking the assumption of a communal, sharing relationship based on love and intimacy, which could be considered to represent a departure from social norms. ...
In this study we investigate the social representations of risky sexual practices. Specifically, we analyse the circumstances in which young Spanish people consider a sexual practice as risky, and how such ‘representations’ of risk have implications for decisions about using condoms. We use the Grid Elaboration Method to gather the naturalistic thoughts and feelings of 175 young people regarding risky sexual practices and performed a lexical analysis of the content of the responses using Iramuteq software. Our analyses suggested two main textual universes regarding risky sexual practices. The first of these, at a theoretical-informative level, is clearly linked to the discourse of experts, where condom use is a key factor and risk is distanced from the self. The second, at a practical-applied level, represents risky sexual practices in a context that is linked to the unknown and a lack of control due to the use of substances or the spontaneity of the sexual encounter. We conclude that understandings of risk emerge from various sources of information, values, or social conventions that articulate everyday understandings and are likely to guide sexual practices, some of which are far removed from expert risk knowledge. We therefore understand representations of risk in sexual relations as situated within a social context. We conclude by discussing the substantive, theoretical, and practical consequences of this social construction of risk.
... shot of 80 • spirits. 21 In light of literature suggesting sexual scriptsdefined beliefs about the self, others, social contexts, and cultural expectations that influence sexual exchanges-vary among men who have sex with men and men who have sex with women, 22 the sample was also limited to men with a prior sexual experience (oral, vaginal, or anal sex) with a female partner in the past 4 months. Participants were excluded if they screened positive for alcohol withdrawal with a score of 23 or higher on the Alcohol Use Withdrawal Symptom Checklist or reported suicidal or homicidal ideation. ...
Introduction
Hooking up is an impersonal sexual interaction, differing from sexual activity that occurs in the context of a committed relationship. Hookup behavior has been widely studied among college populations; however, this type of sexual behavior has yet to be explored in a military population.
Methods
The current study conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 male soldiers with high-risk drinking habits to explore conceptualizations of hooking up. Interviews were systematically coded and analyzed via thematic analysis.
Results
Five themes emerged: (1) definitions of hookups, (2) descriptions of why hookups occur, (3) how hookups occur (ie, the social context of hookups), (4) factors that facilitate hookups, and (5) differences between hookups and relationships.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that perceptions of hookups among participants who were male soldiers are generally consistent with college populations, with some varying aspects.
... Approximately 65% of US college students report alcohol use before their most recent hookup (Grello, Welsh, and Harper 2006). Binge drinking prior to, or during hookups increases sexual risk behaviours depending on their familiarity with partners; and increased partner familiarity increases the likelihood of unprotected sex, yet decreases the likelihood of binge drinking (Kuperberg and Padgett 2016a). Hookups, especially in conjunction with alcohol, may facilitate participation in sexual risk behaviours that could lead to negative consequences for the sexual, emotional, and physical health and safety of students (Allison and Risman 2013;LaBrie et al. 2014). ...
This study used a sexual scripting framework to analyse data from the Online College Social Life Survey to examine the role of individual, (e.g. gender, race and alcohol use), relational (partner type, condom use behaviours), and contextual factors (sex ratios and fraternity/sorority affiliation) influencing 4,292 first-year college students’ hookup experiences. Results suggest that hookups are relatively “safe”, with the the majority involving non-penetrative sexual behaviour, condom use, and familiar partners. However, alcohol use affected hookup behaviours and lower levels of condom use were associated with heavy alcohol use, even with less well known partners. Findings point to the importance of interventions that reinforce first-year students’ positive behaviours and present them with protective behavioural strategies to use in the context of alcohol, and with repeat or well-known partners to reduce risk and have enjoyable, consensual sexual experiences.
... For example, sexual advances and activity are normalized at parties and bars (Norris et al., 1996;Thompson and Cracco, 2008), which are viewed as contexts that facilitate Running head: SOCIOSEXUALITY & DRINKING CONTEXTS 5 casual sex (Lindgren et al., 2009). Accordingly, individuals seeking hookups are likely to frequent parties and bars as a way of meeting new sex partners (Kuperberg and Padgett, 2017). ...
Objective: The desire for many novel, concurrent, uncommitted, sex partners (i.e., unrestricted sociosexuality) may encourage individuals to seek out contexts that facilitate casual sex. We tested a model in which the effects of sociosexuality on sex with new partners were mediated via drinking in specific contexts. We hypothesized that drinking at parties and bars, which are known to facilitate casual sex (but not drinking at home) would contribute to sex with new (but not with previous) partners. Method: Participants were 427 freshmen men from a large, public, Northeastern university. They completed a baseline survey in their first semester followed by 56 days of daily reports on drinking and sexual activity during their second semester. Results: As predicted, sociosexuality measured at baseline positively predicted occasions of sex with a new partner, but not sex with a previous partner. In support of the model, effects were partially mediated by frequency of drinking at parties and bars across the 56-day reporting period, but not by drinking at home. Conclusions: Previous research has demonstrated associations among sociosexuality, drinking, and casual sex. Our study is unique in suggesting that drinking in specific contexts—that is, drinking at parties and bars, but not drinking at home—partially mediates the effects of sociosexuality on sex with new partners. This pathway suggests that men with a desire for many novel, concurrent, uncommitted, sex partners seek out drinking contexts as a way of facilitating these encounters.
... Hookups may allow young women questioning their sexual identity to engage in sexual exploration (Rupp et al., 2014), and because there have traditionally been fewer ways for sexual minorities to meet dating partners, hookups may serve as a way for SMW to explore potential romantic relationships (Watson et al., 2017). Hookups among SMW also occur in different contexts; women hooking up with women are more likely to meet on the internet and less likely to meet through parties or bars than women hooking up with men (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2015), but they are similarly likely to engage in heavy drinking prior to hookups (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). Given the potentially unique nature of hookups in SMW, it remains unclear whether hookups pose a risk for IR in this population. ...
Sexual minority women (SMW), including lesbian and bisexual women, are at greater risk for heavy drinking and sexual victimization than heterosexual women. Risk factors for alcohol-related sexual victimization, such as incapacitated rape (IR), include frequent heavy drinking and hookups among heterosexual women, but it is less clear whether these risk factors extend to SMW. This current study was designed to address this gap. In a national sample of SMW (N = 1,057), logistic regressions were used to test whether heavy drinking and hookups in the first year of the study were risk factors for IR during the second year. After controlling for history of prior sexual victimization, subsequent IR was predicted by an interaction between heavy drinking and the number of male hookup partners. Specifically, more frequent heavy drinking was associated with increased risk for subsequent IR, but only among SMW who reported more than one male hookup partner, indicating exposure to more potential perpetrators. When examined separately, this finding held for bisexual women, but was not significant for lesbian women, likely because they reported fewer male hookup partners. Overall, findings from this longitudinal study highlight that in combination, heavy drinking and hookups with multiple men elevate risk for IR.
... College students commonly meet hookup partners at bars, parties, or other events that encourage alcohol consumption, often at excessive levels (Paul and Hayes, 2002;Bersamin et al., 2012) and may even seek out drinking contexts in order to find a sexual partner (Lindgren et al., 2009). For example, Kuperberg and Padgett (2017) found that for college students, meeting in bars or at parties through common interest groups or history and (for women) at dormitories was associated with binge drinking during hookups; meeting online and (for women) in public was associated with reduced heavy drinking during encounters. Related, research by Dai et al. (2017) found that college students' beliefs that attending parties and events enable hooking up behavior were positively associated with hooking up behavior. ...
Hookups are uncommitted sexual encounters that range from kissing to intercourse and occur between individuals in whom there is no current dating relationship and no expressed or acknowledged expectations of a relationship following the hookup. Research over the last decade has begun to focus on hooking up among adolescents and young adults with significant research demonstrating how alcohol is often involved in hooking up. Given alcohol’s involvement with hooking up behavior, the array of health consequences associated with this relationship, as well as its increasing prevalence from adolescence to young adulthood, it is important to determine the predictors and consequences associated with alcohol-related hooking up. The current review extends prior reviews by adding more recent research, including both qualitative and experimental studies (i.e., expanding to review more diverse methods), research that focuses on the use of technology in alcohol-related hookups (i.e., emerging issues), further develops prevention and intervention potentials and directions, and also offers a broader discussion of hooking up outside of college student populations (i.e., expanding generalization). This article will review the operationalization and ambiguity of the phrase hooking up, the relationship between hooking up and alcohol use at both the global and event levels, predictors of alcohol-related hooking up, and both positive and negative consequences, including sexual victimization, associated with alcohol-related hookups. Throughout, commentary is provided on the methodological issues present in the field, as well as limitations of the existing research. Future directions for research that could significantly advance our understanding of hookups and alcohol use are provided.
... Thus, college students are at a higher risk of intrapersonal transgressions by the very nature of their developmental stage. For example, they are likely to engage in risky behaviors such as illicit drug consumption (Arria et al., 2017;Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014), unprotected sex (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017), dangerous driving (Terry & Terry, 2016), and binge drinking (Walters, Bulmer, Troiano, Obiaka, & Bonhomme, 2018). In addition, among college students, women may be at a higher risk for negative outcomes than men. ...
The self-forgiveness process may be considered emotionally taxing among college students. The current study explored college students’ past intrapersonal transgressions (n = 88) through two outcomes (able or unable to forgive oneself). Using NVivo 11 Pro software, thematic analyses revealed the most common situational circumstances and internal emotional determinants that were
embedded in these contexts. Findings highlight the need to revise the existing self-forgiveness model to include experiences related to intrapersonal transgressions. Clinical implications include relevant intervention strategies to engage in the self-forgiveness process of an intrapersonal transgression among emerging adults. Directions for theory development are discussed.
... Growing prevalence rates of risky behaviors among university students, especially the undergraduates, is a source of great concern these days [1] [2] [3]. Higher education is considered as the critical period of transition from high school to adulthood in which, students have to deal with developmental challenges and various stressors related to tuition fee and other financial problems, university adjustment, lack of facilities (accommodation, transportation, and library), career selection and etc. [4][5] [6] [7][8] [9]. ...
University students face challenges during their studies such as financial problems, academic difficulties, and lack of facilities (accommodation, transportation, and library). Students experience more anxiety and stress which lead to risky behaviors. Risky behaviors are one of the most important issues which threaten mental health of students. Nowadays, there are lots of controversies centered this issue among authorities. According to recent studies, early maladaptive schema domains are related to risky behaviors in students. Lack of comprehensive research on the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and risky behaviors among university students in Iran motivated the researchers to conduct this study.
This study investigates the relationship between early maladaptive schema domains (Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness, over vigilance/Inhibition) and risky behaviors among university students. To achieve the aims of this study particular objective is as follow: To determine the relationship between early maladaptive schema domains and risky behaviors among first-year university students.
This study employed a descriptive correlational design. A number of 200 students were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling from all undergraduates in the faculty of Management and Accounting at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran, Iran. Young Schema Questionnaire- Short Form (YSQ-SF) with 75 questions and Risky Behaviors Questionnaire (adult’s version) with 102 questions were used in order to collect data. Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation.
The result of Pearson Correlation showed a significant positive relationship between all early maladaptive schema domains (Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness, over vigilance/Inhibition) and risky behaviors among university students.
Findings indicated that early maladaptive schema domains are related to risky behaviors; it means those who have more risky behaviors have also more maladaptive schema domains. The result of this study provides psychologists with some features of personality and behaviors among students that need to be probed further. Moreover, the findings present useful information to professionals working in the fields of counseling.
keywords: early maladaptive schema domains, risky behaviors, university students.
... Prior research on the hook-up culture has relied heavily on data collected in the early 2010s, specifically through use of the Online College Social Life Survey, a nationwide survey of college students which began in 2005 (e.g., Allison & Risman, 2013, Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017. While this data source is invaluable as a national sample of respondents, research utilizing only this data is perhaps missing the changing landscape of young adult hook ups: those which are facilitated through the internet. ...
... Boys and girls who had an Internet partner were less likely to have used a condom at first sex with the most recent sexual partner, but were more likely to have had a CT test. Boys and girls who sought a partner online for sexual reasons engaged in riskier sexual behaviors (e.g., multiple partners, no condom use) and were three times more likely to have CT than those who sought partners online for romantic reasons Kuperberg and Padgett (2017) There was no association between college students that engage in heterosexual sex who met a partner through the Internet or personal ads and engaging in condomless vaginal sex. Those who had online partners were reported higher rates of unfamiliarity with their partners, and thus fewer hookups Ma et al. (2017) Women between the ages of 18-24 who had met a recent Internet male sex partner in the past 6 months did not have statistically significant higher incidences of clinically relevant HPV infections than women who did not have a recent Internet male sex partner in the past 6 months (0) (0) Malu et al. (2004) There was no association between condom use and engaging in sex with an Internet partner among the London and Plymouth samples. ...
Use of Internet websites and mobile applications to meet potential romantic and sexual partners is becoming increasingly popular. While the Internet might foster better communication and sexual negotiation between partners, it can also be a deceptive environment that instigates and accelerates sexual risk-taking. Given the complexities of the Internet, it is critical to examine the association between risky sexual behaviors (RSBs) and online partner-seeking. Five databases (i.e., Google Scholar, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Ovid Medline) were searched for articles published before September 10, 2017, that examined the association between online partner solicitation (either for romantic and/or sexual reasons) and RSBs. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were empirical papers published in English-language peer-reviewed journals looking at samples of online partner seekers who practice heterosexual sex (with a comparison group) and reporting either condom use or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) status, which were the two primary outcomes. A total of 25 studies met the criteria to be included in our review. Results from this literature search do not indicate a clear association between online partner-seeking and condom use or STI status. Potential moderators (i.e., age, gender, reasons for online partner solicitation, duration of Internet correspondence, and Internet modalities) that should be included in future research were identified. Sexual health prevention efforts should address methods to negotiate safe practices between sexual partners and to encourage healthy non-virtual relationships, particularly among vulnerable populations.
... Due to the global assessments of behaviour in this study, alongside its cross-sectional design, we can only comment on the prevalence and magnitude of associations between behaviours and not the processes by which behaviours are linked (Cooper, 2002). In addition, meeting contexts and partner familiarity may influence the link between substance use and risky sex behaviours: recent research found that cannabis use and unprotected sex during encounters was more common when students knew their hookup partner better or had hooked up with the partner before, while binge drinking was associated with hooking up with less familiar partners (Kuperberg & Padgett, 2017). ...
Aims
Risky sex behaviours among college students are a growing public health concern. However, few studies have profiled these behaviours using a large range of psychosocial correlates.
Methods
Participants were 6874 undergraduate and postgraduate students (64.7% female, age range 17-25 years, M = 20.43 years, SD = 1.86 years) drawn from 13 higher-level institutions in Ireland.
Results
Regarding prevalence, 75% of the sample report that they have been, or are currently sexually active. Of this sexually active cohort (n = 5111), 27.2% report early sexual initiation, 29.5% report 5 or more lifetime sexual partners and 12.1% report 2 or more sexual partners in the past 3 months. In addition, 47.7% of students report inconsistent condom use and 39.5% report inconsistent use of other contraceptive methods in the past 3 months. Using multivariate logistic regression analyses, significant correlates of risky sex behaviour are identified across 5 groups of psychosocial predictors (demographic, sexuality and relationships, substance use, mental well-being and personal resources). Differences between males and females and between different sexual orientations are highlighted.
Conclusions
Suggestions are made for sexual education and intervention programs to specifically target subgroups of the student population.
... Another study found that half of their sample of 431 young men who have sex with men (YMSM) spent more than 2 hours a week on the Internet looking for casual partners (Bauermeister et al. 2011). In a recent study analyzing 12,065 college students who responded to the Online College Social Life Survey, nearly 1 in 5 men who hooked up with men and 6% of women who hooked up with women met online; for heterosexual men and women, the rate of hookups facilitated by online services were less than 2% (Kuperberg and Padgett 2016b). Finally, in a study of 1902 YMSM in Australia, the most common way for young people (under the age of 24) to meet sexual partners was mobile apps (75%), compared to friends (60%), gay bars (41%) and the Internet (35%) (Chow et al. 2016). ...
In this paper, we acknowledge and critique the absence of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) experiences in the recent proliferation of scholarship on “hooking up” among youth (aged 16 to 24). Although previous research has documented that LGB youth hookup at high rates (up to three-quarters of LGB youth), and oftentimes more than heterosexuals, the most basic aspects of hookups (e.g., motivations, experiences, and outcomes) have not been comprehensively explored. This is pertinent because young adulthood, in particular, is a time when young people explore their sexuality. Most scholarship on hooking up has focused on White heterosexual college students, mostly due to sampling constraints and impediments, and so we are left with a critical gap in our knowledge about LGB youth—a population that is typically at higher risk for sexual, mental, and emotional health issues. We begin by reviewing the literature on hooking up among heterosexual young adults as organized by four themes: hookup definitions/frequencies, contexts, motivations, and outcomes. We do this to explicitly highlight and contrast what little is known about LGB youth hookups. We then provide a research agenda that projects how future researchers can advance this area of scholarship and begin to fill its gaps, while considering the hookup experiences of diverse LGB youth.
... Further, some have noted that hooking up may largely include nonpenetrative sexual behaviors (such as oral sex) with one study finding that while 81 %ofcollege studentsreported engaging in somesexual behavior in the context of hooking up, only 34 % reported sexual intercourse during a hookup (Reiber & Garcia, 2010). Similarly, in an analysis of the characteristics of the most recent hookups of 11,532 undergraduates, Kuperberg and Padgett (2016) found that 45 % of men and 41% of women reported vaginal or anal sex in that hookup. Furthersupportingtheseestimatesofintercourseinhookups, Fielder and Carey (2010) found that only 27 % of the most recent hookups of first semester college women involved vaginal sex. ...
Examining age, time period, and cohort/generational changes in sexual experience is key to better understanding sociocultural influences on sexuality and relationships. Americans born in the 1980s and 1990s (commonly known as Millennials and iGen) were more likely to report having no sexual partners as adults compared to GenX’ers born in the 1960s and 1970s in the General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of American adults (N = 26,707). Among those aged 20–24, more than twice as many Millennials born in the 1990s (15 %) had no sexual partners since age 18 compared to GenX’ers born in the 1960s (6 %). Higher rates of sexual inactivity among Millennials and iGen also appeared in analyses using a generalized hierarchical linear modeling technique known as age–period–cohort analysis to control for age and time period effects among adults of all ages. Americans born early in the 20th century also showed elevated rates of adult sexual inactivity. The shift toward higher rates of sexual inactivity among Millennials and iGen’ers was more pronounced among women and absent among Black Americans and those with a college education. Contrary to popular media conceptions of a “hookup generation” more likely to engage in frequent casual sex, a higher percentage of Americans in recent cohorts, particularly Millennials and iGen’ers born in the 1990s, had no sexual partners after age 18.
Scholars have argued that college hookup culture is facilitated by the unique physical and social context of college campuses and that young adults are increasingly using dating apps to initiate hookups. This has inspired calls for researchers to examine the digital interactions that precede face-to-face hookups. In this study, we used a “sexual market” framework to investigate the processes by which college hookups are “digitally brokered” via dating apps. Using data from focus groups conducted with 49 college students representing diverse sexual identities, we analyzed dating app users’ stories of their transitions from digital interactions to face-to-face meetups with matches. Participants discussed three types of consent that matches attempt to digitally broker: app-implied consent, colloquial consent, and (re)negotiated consent. We discuss problems that arise when users attempt to redeem these forms of digitally brokered consent during face-to-face meetups and make recommendations for sexual assault prevention efforts.
Dating apps are a popular tool for finding sexual and romantic partners. Yet, these apps can pose risks that arise from gendered affordances of technology that users deploy to harass and victimize their matches, particularly matches who are women or sexual and gender minorities. Just as gendered affordances may facilitate risks, dating app users may also deploy technology in ways that mitigate risk. In this study, we examined risks that men and women perceive dating app matches to pose, as well as ways in which they use technology to mitigate these risks. Through an analysis of focus groups conducted with a sample of college student dating app users, we found the perceived risks that matches pose were markedly different for men and women, particularly among those seeking mixed-gender pairings. Women who matched with men were concerned about being sexually assaulted, whereas men who matched with women were concerned about being falsely accused of assault. Thus, women used gendered affordances to enhance their safety, and men used affordances to enhance their “believability.” We suggest our findings point to the positional and interactional nature of gendered affordances, encompassing ways in which gender inequality may be both maintained and subverted with digital technology.
This study’s purpose was to identify the role of counselling services in mitigating risky sexual behaviours among undergraduate students of main campuses in Nakuru County. Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura and Person-Centred Theory by Carl Rogers guided the study. The study was carried out among 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th year undergraduate students from main campuses in Nakuru County. The study adopted a correlational research design. The target population was 18570 undergraduate students. The accessible population was 8456 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th year undergraduate students whose sample was 367. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The study included a sample of 10 peer counsellors and 2 student counsellors from the Egerton University and Kabarak University main campuses who were selected through purposive sampling. Data were obtained using questionnaire for undergraduate students, focus group discussions guide for peer counsellors and interview schedule for student counsellors. Validation of research instruments was done through peer and expert review and also through pilot testing which was done in Mount Kenya University (MKU) - Nakuru Campus. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data using SPSS Version 25 whereas the qualitative data was analysed thematically. The analysed data was presented in tables, graphs, and narratives. The researcher considered ethics of confidentiality and informed consent. The findings indicated that counselling services play a key role in universities in mitigating risky sexual behaviours among undergraduate students.
An existing theoretical framework proposes that aberrant temporal processing and a fast internal clock, denoted by overestimation and under-reproduction of time, increases the likelihood of engagement in risky behaviors (ERB). The primary aim of this project was to improve our understanding of the relationship between temporal processing and ERB in college students. The present study used the Wittmann and Paulus (2008) theoretical framework to examine the associations between temporal processing and ERB in college students. College student participants (N = 215) completed self-report measures of ERB, delay aversion, inhibitory control, ADHD symptoms and objective cognitive time estimation and time reproduction tasks. Time estimation accuracy was significantly associated with lower engagement in sexual risk behaviors (OR = .988; 95% CI: .979, .996; p = .006) and aggressive behaviors (OR = .989; 95% CI: .980, .998; p = .018). Time reproduction was not significantly associated with ERB. The present study established preliminary support for the associations between aberrant temporal processing, namely aberrant time estimation, and ERB among college students.
Background:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a serious worldwide public health problem and has become the focus of prevention and control in China, while the student population is the key population for AIDS prevention.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on college students' AIDS-related cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors, and to find programmatic strategies for AIDS prevention in terms of changing college students' cognitions and behaviors.
Methods:
In a cluster randomized controlled trial, 233 undergraduate students were assigned to the CBT group (CBT-based intervention, n=92), the TAU group (treatment as usual, n=72), and the CON group (no intervention, n=59). AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of participants were assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up.
Results:
After one month of the study, AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors improved in both the TAU and CBT groups, while there were no significant changes in the CON group. The intervention effect was more significant and sustainable in the CBT group compared to the TAU group.
Conclusions:
The application of CBT in AIDS prevention among college students is feasible, acceptable, and effective. CBT can increase the level of knowledge about AIDS, improve AIDS-related attitudes, and increase willingness to use condoms. CBT is expected to replace traditional health education as an innovative tool for AIDS prevention because of its long-lasting and efficacious nature.
Research on alcohol and sexual assault has increased greatly in quantity and sophistication since the association between the two was first recognized. Using my personal experience of 30 years of sexual assault research as a frame, I trace the development of important breakthroughs and insights in understanding alcohol-related sexual assault. Among the important milestones are the identification of incapacitated rape as a distinct and prevalent form of victimization among college students and recognition of the close linkage between alcohol-related sexual assault and sexual activity such as hookups. Emerging research points toward the importance of drinking environments and individual differences in motivations to frequent these environments, in understanding how potential perpetrators and victims are brought together. Prevention is challenging given the variety of processes underlying sexual assault. However, some efforts, both individual and those targeting drinking environments and policy, have achieved some success in reducing sexual assault and increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying alcohol-related sexual assault.KeywordsSexual assaultAlcoholDrinking environmentHookupsReductionPrevention
Administrators at many higher education institutions are capitalizing on the pervasive use of social media, but there are still disagreements about whether or not the use of social media has a positive impact on college students. With the wide use of social media and its possible effects, understanding students’ perceptions of their own social media usage in reference to their peers has implications for research and practice. With the research paradigm on pluralistic ignorance as a guide, this study used a subset of data from the 2018 online administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement, which contained responses from 5,025 first-year students and 5,487 seniors attending 33 institutions throughout the United States, with a majority being of traditional age (less than 24 years old). For both first-years and seniors, the results demonstrate that students perceive others to be posting and viewing social media more frequently than themselves, and this effect is even more pronounced for males. There was also a main effect for sex, such that females perceived both themselves and other students to be posting and viewing social media more frequently than males. These findings add nuance to the social media usage of college students, a topic that is continuously expanding as technology changes. These findings can help guide faculty, advisors, and administrators to better understand how students’ perceptions of peers’ social media usage might relate to their own, and consider how those perceptions of their classmates might affect their own behavior in both positive and negative ways.
This study examined the empirical link between substance use, and family, school, and contextual factors relevant to emerging adulthood and Mexican-origin emerging adults' sexual risk-taking behavior using a longitudinal design that followed the respondents from adolescence to emerging adulthood (n = 520). Overall, we found that engaging in one high-risk sexual behavior was associated with higher odds of engaging in another. While alcohol and substance use was associated with higher odds of engaging in risky sexual behavior, living with parents, having at least one parent who was a college graduate, sharing a higher level of parental closeness, being more bicultural, starting college, a new school, or classes, and feeling like an adult were associated with lower odds of engaging in sexual risk-taking behavior. Contrary to the study hypothesis, a higher level of family cohesion was associated with higher odds of such behavior. Lastly, male respondents tended to have more than 3 sexual partners but were less likely to not use condoms compared with their female counterparts.
College women are at more risk in terms of sexual behavior than male students. This study was carried out to determine the effect of the transtheoretical model-based Healthy Youth Program on college women's sexual health knowledge and behaviors. The sample of the study, which was conducted with a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design, consisted of 207 first-year college women. It was determined that the Healthy Youth Program was effective in improving the sexual health knowledge and behaviors of college women. It can be used as a guide in sexual health education in colleges.
Objective:
The desire for many novel, concurrent, uncommitted sex partners (i.e., unrestricted sociosexuality) may encourage individuals to seek out contexts that facilitate casual sex. We tested a model in which the effects of sociosexuality on sex with new partners were mediated via drinking in specific contexts. We hypothesized that drinking at parties and bars, which are known to facilitate casual sex (but not drinking at home), would contribute to sex with new (but not with previous) partners.
Method:
Participants were 427 male freshmen from a large, public northeastern university. They completed a baseline survey in their first semester followed by 56 days of daily reports on drinking and sexual activity during their second semester.
Results:
As predicted, sociosexuality measured at baseline positively predicted occasions of sex with a new partner, but not sex with a previous partner. In support of the model, effects were partially mediated by frequency of drinking at parties and bars across the 56-day reporting period, but not by drinking at home.
Conclusions:
Previous research has demonstrated associations among sociosexuality, drinking, and casual sex. Our study is unique in suggesting that drinking in specific contexts--that is, drinking at parties and bars, but not drinking at home--partially mediates the effects of sociosexuality on sex with new partners. This pathway suggests that men with a desire for many novel, concurrent, uncommitted sex partners seek out drinking contexts as a way of facilitating these encounters.
Sexual risk behavior is common among college women, but little work has identified risk patterns or correlates. The current study utilized latent profile analysis to identify sexual risk patterns among 1,534 college women. Results supported four classes: low sexual risk (68.2%), moderate sexual risk: party hookups (11.0%), moderate sexual risk: risky partners (17.6%), and high sexual risk (3.1%). Membership in the moderate and high-risk classes were associated with coping motives, drinking, and risky peer norms, while membership in the low risk class was associated with sexual satisfaction and low peer approval of risky sex. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Are “hook up” apps leading to a new kind of dating culture on college campuses? Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are have a different impact on the lives of college students versus older daters. Many students are using these apps to circumvent the romantic gatekeeping that campus party culture has long dominated.
Hookups, or encounters that include varied sexual behaviors without expectation of a committed relationship, have received substantial academic and popular interest over the past two decades. We review research on college hookup culture, focusing on gender and patterns of hookup participation, experiences, and outcomes. We critically examine theoretical perspectives that have been offered to explain gender differences in hooking up, explore problematic dynamics in hookups including gendered sexual double standards and sexual assault, and describe recent advances in hookup research related to campus sex ratios, same-sex hookups, and race and class intersections. We offer a critique of existing research and provide suggestions for future studies of gender and sexual encounters. Specifically, research on the intersections of gender with race/ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation are lacking, as are studies of transgender hookups, hookups among same aged non-college attending young adults, and hookups that occur later in the life course.
Hook-up behavior consists of sexual activity between uncommitted individuals. “Hooking up” has become pervasive among young adults, particularly on college campuses in the United States, despite inherent emotional, physical, social and health risks. A total of 507 undergraduate students were surveyed to assess the prevalence of, and motivations for, hook-up behavior. Of those students, 64% reported having ever engaged in a hook-up. Of those who had hooked up, 51% had done so with the intention of initiating a traditional romantic relationship; there were no sex differences. Contrary to established notions of uncommitted sexual activity as an evolved behavioral strategy, results are discussed from a synergistic biopsychosocial perspective that situates this complex sexual behavior at the intersection of evolution, basic biology, psychology, and novel cultural factors. A decreasing average age at menarche and increasing age of mother at first birth has created a window of sexually mature but pre-reproductive life that is historically unprecedented in its duration. We suggest this time window, paired with evolved neural correlates of sexual and reproductive behavior, greater acceptance of the social sexualization of youth, and characteristics of the modern collegiate environment, results in the increasing prevalence of hook-ups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined 13,976 dates and 12,068 hookup encounters at 22 colleges in the United States reported by students surveyed between 2005 and 2011 in the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) to determine differences between dates and hookups in partner meeting context and sex during the encounter. Students most often met date and hookup partners through institutional settings or bars and parties, with approximately two-thirds of partners met in these venues. Those who had fewer potential partners on campus (women) were less likely to find partners in campus locations and less likely to find male sexual or dating partners but more likely to date women. Men and women engaging in same-sex encounters had higher rates of meeting partners through Internet sources. Hookups were associated with partners met in bars, parties, nightclubs, and college dormitories, and were twice as likely as dates to include sex. Students were more likely to go on dates with partners met on the Internet, which we theorize is a result of low levels of trust associated with that context. Patterns found are related to the association of meeting contexts with hookup scripts, risk and trust, and local partnering markets.
Most young adults have had some casual sex experience. However, it is important to understand the motivations for such behavior. We investigate the motivations for and consequences of casual sex using a life-course lens. We use the Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study to examine a diverse sample of young adults with recent casual sexual experiences (N = 239). We draw on a subset of in-depth relationship narratives (N = 44) to provide a more nuanced understanding of the motivations for and consequences of casual sex. We find that sexual pleasure and substance use remain the most common reasons for participating in casual sex. However, young adults report motives that are associated with the young adult stage in the life course including too busy for commitment, geographic mobility, and feeling too young to be tied down. These findings can inform service providers who work with the young adult population.
Engagement in casual sex (or hooking up) is generally feared to have negative well-being consequences; however, empirical evidence is inconclusive, pointing toward potential moderators. Using self-determination theory (SDT), we hypothesized that well-being following hookups would depend on the type and level of motivation for hooking up. A university-wide sample of 528 undergraduates completed online surveys at the beginning (T1) and end (T3) of one academic year. After controlling for demographics, personality traits (i.e., neuroticism and extraversion), prior casual and romantic sex, and T1 well-being, having genital hookups between T1 and T3 for non-autonomous reasons (i.e., due to self-imposed pressures, external contingencies and controls, or complete lack of intentionality) was linked to lower self-esteem, higher depression and anxiety, and more physical symptoms. Autonomous hookup motivation (i.e., emanating from one's self) was not linked to any outcomes. Compared to peers without hookups, those with high non-autonomy in their hookups typically had inferior well-being; this was not true of those with low non-autonomy hookups. Gender differences, implications for SDT and casual sex research, and implications for educational programs and clinical work are discussed.
This study examined 392 regrettable sex stories submitted by college students attending a large public university in the northeast. Stories were coded for common themes. In nearly half the sexual episodes (49%), the individuals were drinking. However, only 16% cited “I was drunk” as the primary reason for regretting the sexual experience. Other common reasons cited by students for regretting a sexual experience were: “It was a disappointing first time” (25%), “It was unprotected sex” (22%), “I was cheating on my partner” (17%), “It was a one-night stand” (17%), and “It ruined our friendship” (11%). Implications for educating college students are discussed.
"Hookups," or uncommitted sexual encounters, are becoming progressively more engrained in popular culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predilections and changing social and sexual scripts. Hook-up activities may include a wide range of sexual behaviors, such as kissing, oral sex, and penetrative intercourse. However, these encounters often transpire without any promise of, or desire for, a more traditional romantic relationship. A review of the literature suggests that these encounters are becoming increasingly normative among adolescents and young adults in North America, representing a marked shift in openness and acceptance of uncommitted sex. We reviewed the current literature on sexual hookups and considered the multiple forces influencing hookup culture, using examples from popular culture to place hooking up in context. We argue that contemporary hookup culture is best understood as the convergence of evolutionary and social forces during the developmental period of emerging adulthood. We suggest that researchers must consider both evolutionary mechanisms and social processes, and be considerate of the contemporary popular cultural climate in which hookups occur, in order to provide a comprehensive and synergistic biopsychosocial view of "casual sex" among emerging adults today.
Sex markets (the spatially and culturally bounded arenas) that shape bisexual behavior among Latino men have been utilized as a deterministic concept without a sufficient focus on the ability of individuals to make autonomous decisions within such arenas. We nuance the theory of sex markets using the concept of sexual opportunity structures to investigate the ways in which behaviorally bisexual Latino men in the urban metropolis of New York City navigate sexual geographies, cultural meaning systems, sexual scripts, and social institutions to configure their bisexual behaviors. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews with bisexual Latino men in New York City, we first describe and analyze venues that constitute sexual geographies that facilitate and impede sexual interaction. These also allow for a degree of autonomy in decision-making, as men travel throughout the urban sexual landscape and sometimes even manage to reject norms, such as those imposed by Christian religion. We explore some of the cultural meaning systems and social institutions that regulate sex markets and influence individual decision-making. Secrecy and discretion-regulated by the family, masculinity, migration, and religion-only partially shaped sexual behavior and relationships. These factors create a flux in "equilibrium" in bisexual sex markets in which sociocultural-economic structures constantly interplay with human agency. This article contributes to the literature in identifying dynamic spaces for sexual health interventions that draw on individual agency and empowerment.
The understandings of individuality and sociability characteristic of modern liberal and sociological social theory are fatalistic about the potential for the creation of trust in economic relations. These understandings are reconsidered in light of the recent evolution of state-level industrial policy in the United States, focusing on the experience of the state of Pennsylvania where the state's efforts have shown early success in breaking down barriers of mistrust that block economic adjustment in the state's traditional manufacturing industries. Arguing that the sort of cooperation-in-the-making that characterizes the Pennsylvania case is ill-captured by mainstream theory, the paper proffers a notion of studied or vigilant trust based on the core conclusions of 20th century analytic philosophy as a way of squaring theory and stylized facts. Government-instigated discussion among key economic actors has the potential to spur reformulations of collective identities and common histories, resulting in the creation of new avenues of potentially trusting economic relations.
"Hooking-up" - engaging in no-strings-attached sexual behaviors with uncommitted partners - has become a norm on college campuses, and raises the potential for disease, unintended pregnancy, and physical and psychological trauma. The primacy of sex in the evolutionary process suggests that predictions derived from evolutionary theory may be a useful first step toward understanding these contemporary behaviors. This study assessed the hook-up behaviors and attitudes of 507 college students. As predicted by behavioral-evolutionary theory: men were more comfortable than women with all types of sexual behaviors; women correctly attributed higher comfort levels to men, but overestimated men's actual comfort levels; and men correctly attributed lower comfort levels to women, but still overestimated women's actual comfort levels. Both genders attributed higher comfort levels to same-gendered others, reinforcing a pluralistic ignorance effect that might contribute to the high frequency of hook-up behaviors in spite of the low comfort levels reported and suggesting that hooking up may be a modern form of intrasexual competition between females for potential mates.
Although mixed-race partnering in the United States is on the rise, scholars have paid scant attention to where people of 'differently racialized parentage' (Ifekwunigwe, 2001: 46) actually meet. In an effort to help fill this gap, this paper (1) offers an overview of current scholarship on places of encounter and (2) aims to provide a blueprint for future research that will explicitly interrogate where mixed-race partners meet. We organize our survey around four contexts-residential neighborhoods, workplaces, educational settings, and cyberspace-to point out productive avenues for further inquiry. In contrast to much of the literature cited in this essay and in an effort to emphasize the intersections of race and space, we advocate for new scholarship that addresses the times and places where routine, prosaic, interactions between adults can erode long-standing stereotypes and lead to meaningful relationships. In studying everyday social and spatial processes, we highlight the potential insights gained from detailing the 'micro-geographies of habitual practice' (Nash, 2000: 656).
Summarizing the major findings of literature on hook-up culture, we propose a new research agenda focusing on when and why
this sexual subculture emerged. We explore a series of hypotheses to explain this sexual paradigm shift, including college
and university policies, the gender distribution of students, changes in the nature of alcohol use, access to and consumption
of pornography, the increased sexual content of non-pornographic media, rising self-objectification and narcissism, new marriage
norms, and perceptions of sexual risk. We then recommend new directions for research, emphasizing the need to explore structural
and psychological as well as cultural factors, the role of discrete events alongside slowly emerging social change, the need
for intersectional research and studies of non-college-attending and post-college youth, and the benefits of longitudinal
and cross-college designs.
KeywordsHook-up culture-Hooking up-Casual sex and college-aged students-Media-Pornography-Raunch culture-Binge drinking
In this study we explored the prevalence of regret following uncommitted sexual encounters (i.e., casual sex that occurs with someone once and only once or with someone known for less than 24 hours) among 138 female and 62 male Canadian university students, who were approximately 21 years of age. The majority of participants self-reported that they had experienced feelings of regret after an uncommitted sexual encounter. We found women reported feeling significantly more regret than men. However, men's regret was more closely tied to physical attributes than women's regrets. Regret was also influenced by the quality of the sex: high-quality sex rarely led to regret, while the reverse was true for poor-quality sex. In keeping with past studies, intoxication by alcohol and/or drugs was often listed as a source of regret by both men and women.
This research considers how communication within college student social networks may encourage high-risk sexual relationships. Students (n = 274) described sexual scripts for hooking up and reported on peer communication, sexual behavior, and sexual attitudes. Students described varied hookup scripts, expressed ambivalent attitudes, and reported moderate participation in hookups overall. However, the most common hookup script, suggesting high-risk sexual activity (i.e., unplanned, inebriated sex), was featured in most accounts of students who themselves participated in hookups. Students overestimated how often others were hooking up, and these estimates were especially inflated by students who frequently talked about hooking up with friends. Among students with strong ties to peers, frequent peer communication about sex predicted participation in hookups and favorable attitudes about hooking up. Peer approval also predicted hookup behavior and attitudes.
First-semester female college students (N = 118) completed surveys to estimate the prevalence of sexual hookups and event-level assessments to clarify the behavioral characteristics of their most recent hookup. Hookups involving oral, vaginal, or anal sex were reported by 51% before college, 36% during their first semester, and 60% by the end of their first semester. Event-level analyses revealed that hookups were more likely to involve friends (47%) or acquaintances (23%) rather than strangers (14%); alcohol use (median = 3 drinks) preceded 64% of hookups. Condoms were used during 69% of vaginal sex hookups.
Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE) is the name of software for imputing incomplete multivariate data by Fully Conditional Speci cation (FCS). MICE V1.0 appeared in the year 2000 as an S-PLUS library, and in 2001 as an R package. MICE V1.0 introduced predictor selection, passive imputation and automatic pooling. This article presents MICE V2.0, which extends the functionality of MICE V1.0 in several ways. In MICE V2.0, the analysis of imputed data is made completely general, whereas the range of models under which pooling works is substantially extended. MICE V2.0 adds new functionality for imputing multilevel data, automatic predictor selection, data handling, post-processing imputed values, specialized pooling and model selection. Imputation of categorical data is improved in order to bypass problems caused by perfect prediction. Special attention to transformations, sum scores, indices and interactions using passive imputation, and to the proper setup of the predictor matrix. MICE V2.0 is freely available from CRAN as an R package mice. This article provides a hands-on, stepwise approach to using mice for solving incomplete data problems in real data.
An important hypothesis about why people generally interact with people who are socially or culturally similar to themselves is that the opportunities they have to meet similar others are greater than the opportunities they have to meet dissimilar others. We examine this supply-side perspective on social relationships by empirically linking marriage choices to the type of setting couples had in common before they married. We focus on five meeting settings (work, school, the neighborhood, common family networks, and voluntary associations) and five types of homogamy (with respect to age, education, class destinations, class origins, and religious background). Using data from face-to-face interviews among married and cohabiting couples in the Netherlands, we show that these five contexts account for a sizable portion of the places where partners have met. Using loglinear analyses, we subsequently examine whether couples who shared settings are more homogamous than couples who did not share a setting. Our results indicate that schools promote most forms of homogamy, while work places only promote homogamy with respect to class destinations. Neighborhoods and common family networks promote religious homogamy, but they are not related to homogamy with respect to class origins. While in some cases, settings have unexpected effects on marriage choice, our findings generally confirm the notion that mating requires meeting the pool of available interaction partners is shaped by various institutionally organized arrangements and these constrain the type of people with whom we form personal relationships.
The majority of people today will find themselves in the sex market at successively later stages of the life course, and the conditions under which they must form relationships will be very different at different stages of the life course. For example, people in their forties are likely to find themselves in a different market position than they were when they were in their twenties, and they may have altogether different attitudes toward forming sexual unions. Yet there is a lot at stake here, since the ability to form warm, committed, ongoing relationships affects emotional, physical, and financial well-being—in short, the quality of life. The way in which a sexual partnership is formed and maintained is a critical issue because the process has consequences for whether the partnership leads to the kind of committed, enduring relationships that have such a positive effect on the quality of life.
We analyze the Online College Social Life Survey, a survey collected between 2005 and 2011 of students (N = 22,454) at 22 U.S. colleges and universities and estimate whether students hooked up, dated, formed long-term romantic relationships, or did not form relationships while in college and their desire for these relationship opportunities. Students have equal rates of hooking up and dating. Men are more likely than women to have dated and hooked up and less likely to have formed a long-term relationship, although they are more likely to wish there were more opportunities to form long-term relationships. An examination of intimate partnering by sexual orientation, race, religious attendance, and Greek culture reveals distinct pattern that can be explained by cultural norms.
This article describes life-cycle change in the sexual behavior of undergraduates in “hookups” (which are outside traditional
dates or relationships) during years 1–4 of college, explains a decline in the use of condoms, and shows how changes in the
odds of coitus and condom use depend on family background, school gender imbalance, and whether the partners attend the same
college. Coitus becomes increasingly likely as students progress through college. Condom-use rates, in contrast, decline precipitously
between the freshman and sophomore years, before stabilizing. This rapid normalization of unprotected sex in hookups arises
as students adapt to a high-education culture. Condom-use rates in the freshman year are lowest among students who have the
most highly educated mothers. After the freshman year, students with lower-educated mothers converge to the same lower rate.
This decline is pronounced when the partners attend the same college. Implications for health and social policy are discussed.
This article explores how the efficiency of Internet search is changing the way Americans find romantic partners. We use a new data source, the How Couples Meet and Stay Together survey. Results show that for 60 years, family and grade school have been steadily declining in their influence over the dating market. In the past 15 years, the rise of the Internet has partly displaced not only family and school, but also neighborhood, friends, and the workplace as venues for meeting partners. The Internet increasingly allows Americans to meet and form relationships with perfect strangers, that is, people with whom they had no previous social tie. Individuals who face a thin market for potential partners, such as gays, lesbians, and middle-aged heterosexuals, are especially likely to meet partners online. One result of the increasing importance of the Internet in meeting partners is that adults with Internet access at home are substantially more likely to have partners, even after controlling for other factors. Partnership rate has increased during the Internet era (consistent with Internet efficiency of search) for same-sex couples, but the heterosexual partnership rate has been flat.
One of the most prominent features of the current college campus environment is the casual sex practice of the hookup. Hookups are defined as a sexual encounter between two people who are brief acquaintances or strangers, usually lasting only one night without the expectation of developing a relationship (Paul, McManus, & Hayes, 2000). Although there is a vast literature on college students' casual sexual attitudes and behavior, there is little attention to (a) subjective or experiential elements of and (b) the heterogeneity of casual sexual experiences. The goal of this study was to explore the varied phenomenology or experiential reality of college students' casual sexual hookup experiences. A structured questionnaire soliciting open responses regarding college students' views of a typical hookup and reports of their best and worst hookup experiences was administered to 187 college students. Responses were microanalytically content analyzed and globally thematically analyzed. College students' accounts of hookup experiences included behavioral, situational, cognitive, and emotional elements. As expected, although there was relative uniformity in college students' descriptions of a typical hookup, there was wide variation in college students' descriptions of their best and worst hookup experiences. Moreover, whereas there were few differences between males' and females' descriptions of what transpired, there were some sex differences in descriptions of what was felt after actual casual sexual experiences and in interpretations of why experiences were good or bad.
This article explores the concept of trust put forth by Niklas Luhmann and Talcott Parsons. It shows the outline of Luhmann's theory of trust and its connections to his autopoietic systems theory. It also deliberates upon the role of trust in the Luhmannian research of future society as well as examines the role of trust in risk society and shows why norms, values and familiarity play only a peripheral role in today's society. Trust is a way to control everyday interaction of the future. But what are the challenges and limits of Luhmann's concept of trust?
Social interactions at fraternities that undergraduate women identified as places where there is a high risk of rape are compared to those at fraternities identified as low risk as well as two local bars. Factors that contribute to rape are common on this campus; however, both men and women behaved differently in different settings. Implications of these findings are considered.
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Recent studies with samples of homosexual men have demonstrated that drinking in conjunction with sexual activity is strongly related to unsafe sexual activities known to increase the risk of AIDS transmission. Most existing studies have assessed the relationship of general measures of drinking and general frequency of risky sexual activities. Such a design, however, does not establish that drinking and risky behaviors occurred on the same occasion. In this study, adult respondents were asked about the circumstances of two sexual encounters: their most recent sexual experience and their most recent encounter involving a new sexual partner. The characteristics of encounters that involved and did not involve drinking are described. The results showed that encounters with new partners were more likely to involve alcohol, but that the presence of alcohol was not significantly associated with risky sexual activity. These findings suggest that analyses of event‐specific data illuminate a different aspect of the drinking/sex link.
Men (n = 83) and women (n = 86) at nine dating bars in Ontario, Canada, were surveyed to determine gender differences in self‐reported casual sex and AIDS‐prevention behavior. Data analysis focused on 169 bar patrons who had experienced sexual intercourse. More men than women had some experience with casual sex. The women had as many sexual partners as the men, but were less likely to anticipate having casual sex and reported less enjoyment and more guilt about casual sex than did the men. Almost all men and women had declined at least one opportunity to have casual sex. Women expressed greater fear of being physically harmed during a casual encounter and were more concerned about the risks of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases than were men. Although the respondents reported favourable attitudes toward condoms, many had not used condoms during their last experience with casual sex. Women reported stronger intentions to use condoms during casual sex than did men, but there was no gender difference in actual condom use. The findings underline the value of focusing on casual sexual relationships, and we hope that these results will encourage other researchers to study casual relationships in a diversity of contexts.
This article investigates the determinants of orgasm and sexual enjoyment in hookup and relationship sex among heterosexual college women and seeks to explain why relationship sex is better for women in terms of orgasm and sexual enjoyment. We use data from women respondents to a large online survey of undergraduates at 21 U.S. colleges and universities and from 85 in-depth interviews at two universities. We identify four general views of the sources of orgasm and sexual enjoyment—technically competent genital stimulation, partner-specific learning, commitment, and gender equality. We find that women have orgasms more often in relationships than in hookups. Regression analyses reveal that specific sexual practices, experience with a particular partner, and commitment all predict women’s orgasm and sexual enjoyment. The presence of more sexual practices conducive to women’s orgasm in relationship sex explains some of why orgasm is more common in relationships. Qualitative analysis suggests a double standard also contributes to why relationship sex is better for women: both men and women question women’s (but not men’s) entitlement to pleasure in hookups but believe strongly in women’s (as well as men’s) entitlement to pleasure in relationships. More attention is thus given to producing female orgasm in relationships.
Using Triandis's theory of interpersonal behavior, we analyzed factors related to casual sex among Canadian university students on a spring break vacation. Two samples were obtained: 151 students completed a questionnaire before a spring break trip to Daytona Beach, Florida and 681 completed a questionnaire during or immediately following the vacation. More men than women intended to have casual sex but similar percentages of men (15%) and women (13%) had actually engaged in casual sex. In ordinary least squares regression, expectation of participation in spring break activities, social norms expressed through peer group influences, and personal attitudes explained 74% of the variance in the intentions to engage in casual sex. In logistic regression, intentions and participation in spring break activities correctly classified 80% of the men into those who did and did not engage in casual sex. Agreements formed with friends about casual sex and the proportion of friends who participated in coitus on spring break correctly classified 88% of women.
This study focused on a specific risky practice common among contemporary college students: the hookup. Hookups are defined as a sexual encounter which may or may not include sexual intercourse, usually occurring on only one occasion between two people who are strangers or brief acquaintances. The aim of this study was to determine the relative importance of a variety of social and psychological predictors in understanding differences among undergraduate students who had never hooked up, those who had hooked up without sexual intercourse, and those who had hooked up with sexual intercourse. Analyses revealed that, as predicted, social, individual, and relational psychological variables helped to explain the variance among college students' varied hookup experiences. By examining the full range of sexual involvement characteristic of the casual sexual phenomenon of hooking up within a multivariate model, we were able to achieve a more differentiated understanding of college students' casual sexual experimentation.
The article asserts that Goffman's concept of normality comes close to the notion of trust as a protective mechanism that prevents chaos and disorder by providing us with feelings of safety, certainty, and familiarity. Arguing that to account for the tendency of social order to be seen as normal we need to conceptualize trust as the routine background of everyday interaction, the article analyzes Goffman's concepts of normal appearances, stigma, and frames as devices for endowing social order with predictability, reliability, and legibility. For Goffman, normality is a collective achievement, which is possible because of the orderliness of interactional activities, which is—in turn—predicated “on a large base of shared cognitive presuppositions, if not normative ones, and self-sustained restraints” (Goffman 1983, American Sociological Review 48:1–53, p. 5 cited here).
This research examined gender-specific perceptions of risky sexual behavior norms among college students and their relationship
with one’s own sexual behavior. We expected that students would misperceive the risky sexual behavior of their peers and that
these perceptions would positively relate to their sexual behavior. Undergraduate students from the United States (N = 687; 57.6% female) completed measures assessing perceived sexual behavior, sexual behavior, and other behaviors (e.g.,
marijuana use, alcohol consumption). Findings demonstrated that students perceived that others engaged in more risky sexual
behavior than they do and that perceived norms were positively associated with one’s own behavior. The incorporation of personalized
normative feedback regarding risky sexual behavior into brief interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior is discussed.
To examine relationships between disclosure of previous sexually risky behavior to current sexual partners, multiple sexual partners, condom and alcohol use, and vulnerability to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, an anonymous survey was administered to 427 unmarried undergraduates. Of the 262 sexually active students (66%), one third reported having more than one sexual partner in the prior 11 weeks and three fourths reported inconsistent or no condom use. Failure to disclose having previous sexual partners, not using condoms, and testing positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was common among both men and women. Students with multiple sexual partners were less likely to disclose about previous partners and about failure to use condoms, and more likely to use alcohol prior to sexual activity. Although 40.8% of respondents said they did not use or were less likely to use condoms while drinking, no relationship between alcohol and condom use assessed during the last discrete incident was found. College students continue to engage in sexual activity that puts them at risk for contracting HIV and other STDs. Self-disclosure about past risky behavior, when it occurs, does not appear to lead to higher levels of condom use.
Hooking up on college campuses has become more frequent than dating in heterosexual sexual interaction. Analysis of the relative
benefits and costs associated with dating and hooking up suggest that women benefit more from dating while men benefit more
from hooking up. U.S students (150 women, 71 men) at a midsized southeastern university indicated preferences for dating and
hooking up across a number of situations and indicated the perceived benefits and risks associated with each. As hypothesized,
in most situations women more than men preferred dating and men more than women preferred hooking up. Both genders perceived
similar benefits and risks to dating and hooking up; differences provided insight into the sexual motives of college women
and men.
KeywordsDating-Hooking up-Gender differences
Speculation in public discourse suggests that sexual encounters outside a committed romantic relationship may be emotionally damaging for young people, and federal abstinence education policy has required teaching that sexual activity outside of a marital relationship is likely to have harmful psychological consequences.
In 2003-2004, a diverse sample of 1,311 sexually active young adults (mean age, 20.5) participating in a longitudinal study in Minnesota completed a survey including measures of sexual behavior and psychological wellbeing. Chi-square tests were used to compare the prevalence of recent casual partnerships by selected demographic and personal categories. General linear modeling was then used to compare mean levels of each psychological wellbeing measure between those reporting recent casual partners and those reporting committed partners; partner type was measured both dichotomously and categorically.
One-fifth of participants reported that their most recent sex partner was a casual partner (i.e., casual acquaintance or close but nonexclusive partner). Casual partnerships were more common among men than among women (29% vs. 14%), and the proportions of male and female respondents reporting a recent casual partner differed by race or ethnicity. Scores of psychological well-being were generally consistent across sex partner categories, and no significant associations between partner type and well-being were found in adjusted analyses.
Young adults who engage in casual sexual encounters do not appear to be at greater risk for harmful psychological outcomes than sexually active young adults in more committed relationships.
The sexual revolution: an evocative term, but what meaning can be given to it today? How does âsexualityâ come into being, and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life more generally? In answering these questions, the author disputes many of the dominant interpretations of the role of sexuality in modern culture. The author suggests that the revolutionary changes in which sexuality has become cauth up are more long-term than generally conceded. He sees them as intrinsic to the development of modern societies as a whole and to the broad characteristics of that development. Sexuality as we know it today is a creation of modernity, a terrain upon which the contradictory tendencies of modern social life play themselves out in full. Emancipation and oppression, opportunity and riskâthese have become a part of a heady mix that irresistably ties our individual lives to global outcomes and the transformation of intimacy. We live today in a social order in which, for the first time in histroy, women are becoming equal to menâor at least have lodged a claim to such equality as their right. The author does not attempt to analyze the gender inequalities that persist in the economic or political domains, but instead concentrates on a more hisdden personal area in which womenâordinary women, in the course of their day-to-day lives, quite apart from any political agendaâhave pioneered changes of greate, and generalizable, importance. These changes essentially concern an exploration of the potentialities of the âpure relationship,â a relaitonship that presumes sexual and emotional equality, and is explosive in its connotations for pre-existing relations of power. The author analyzes the emergence of what he calls plastic sexualityâsexuality freed from its intrinsic relation to reproductionâin terms of the emotional emancipation implicit in the pure relationship, as well as womenâs claim to sexual pleasure. Plastic sexuality is decentered sexuality, freed from both reproduction and subservience to a fixed object. It can be molded as a trait of personality, and thus become bound up with the reflexivity of the self. Premised on plastic sexuality, the pure relationship is not exclusively heterosexual; it is neutral in terms of sexual orientation. The author speculates that the transformaion of intimacy might be a subversive influence on modern institutions as a whole, for a social world in which the dominant ideal was to achieve intinsic rewards from the company of others might be vastly different from that which we know at the present.
We think of the city as a place where anything goes. Take the sensational fantasies and lurid antics of single women on Sex in the City or young men on Queer as Folk, and you might imagine the city as some kind of sexual playgroundâa place where you can have any kind of sex you want, with whomever you like, anytime or anywhere you choose. But in The Sexual Organization of the City, Edward Laumann and company argue that this idea is a myth. Drawing on extensive surveys and interviews with Chicago adults, they show that the city isâto the contraryâa place where sexual choices and options are constrained. From Wicker Park and Boys Town to the South Side and Pilsen, they observe that sexual behavior and partnering are significantly limited by such factors as which neighborhood you live in, your ethnicity, what your sexual preference might be, or the circle of friends to which you belong. In other words, the social and institutional networks that city dwellers occupy potentially limit their sexual options by making different types of sexual activities, relationships, or meeting places less accessible. To explain this idea of sex in the city, the editors of this work develop a theory of sexual marketplacesâthe places where people look for sexual partners. They then use this theory to consider a variety of questions about sexuality: Why do sexual partnerships rarely cross racial and ethnic lines, even in neighborhoods where relatively few same-ethnicity partners are available? Why do gay men and lesbians have few public meeting spots in some neighborhoods, but a wide variety in others? Why are African Americans less likely to marry than whites? Does having a lot of friends make you less likely to get a sexually transmitted disease? And why do public health campaigns promoting safe sex seem to change the behaviors of some, but not others? Considering vital questions such as these, and shedding new light on the city of Chicago, this work will profoundly recast our ideas about human sexual behavior.