Alcohol myopia and sexual abdication among women: Examining the moderating effect of child sexual abuse

Abstract

HIV and other STIs are major public health concerns for women, and risky sexual behaviors increase the risk of transmission. Risky sexual behaviors include sexual abdication, that is, willingness to let a partner decide how far to go sexually. Alcohol intoxication is a risk factor for risky sexual behavior, and the Inhibition Conflict Model of Alcohol Myopia may help explain this relationship (Steele et al., 1985). This model suggests that in order for intoxication to influence behavior there must be high conflict, meaning the strength of the instigatory cues and inhibitory cues are both high. Recent research indicates that the degree to which cues are experienced as high in instigation or inhibition is subject to individual difference factors. One individual difference factor associated with alcohol-related sexual risk taking is child sexual abuse (CSA) history. The current study examined the influence of acute alcohol intoxication, CSA, and inhibition conflict on sexual abdication with 131 women (mean age 25) randomized into a 2 (alcohol, control) x 2 (high conflict, low conflict) experimental design. Regression analyses yielded a significant 3-way interaction, F (1,122) = 8.15, R2 = .14, p <.01. When there was high conflict, intoxicated CSA women were more likely to abdicate than sober CSA women, however, sober CSA women were less likely to abdicate than sober NSA women. When there was low conflict, CSA history and alcohol intoxication had no influence on abdication. These results may help explain the association between alcohol and risky sexual decision making among women with CSA.

Partner Pressure, Victimization History, and Alcohol: Women’s Condom-Decision Abdication Mediated by Mood and Anticipated Negative Partner Reaction

“…Thus, our findings continue to support the suggestions that prevention interventions should target drinking and should highlight victimization history as a factor. It appears from these and other findings (1,25,26) that women with varying degrees of sexual victimization history severity make different decisions when using and not using alcohol. The current findings suggest that different decisions may place them at different kinds of interpersonal risk, e.g., disease risk and assault risk.…”

“…As operationalized in previous work, it constitutes a risky behavior because it subsumes allowing a partner to decide about condom use (26–28) and it predicts unprotected sex intentions (1). Sexual abdication may be an especially relevant outcome for victimized women who often feel powerless and unassertive in sexual situations and have difficulty refusing unwanted sexual advances (2,3,29).…”

“…Masters et al (1) found that CSA increased sexual abdication indirectly via ASA and perceptions of the partner. Staples et al (26) found that, compared to non-victims, CSA victims exhibited greater abdication when intoxicated and when subjected to high versus low inhibition conflict about having sex. Such findings suggest that women with increasingly more severe sexual victimization histories are more likely to abdicate sexually to a partner, especially when intoxicated.…”

Predictive utility and measurement properties of the Strength of Implementation Intentions Scale (SIIS) for condom use

“…Alcohol myopia theory suggests that consuming alcohol can impair attention, cognition, and information processing (Staples et al, 2015; Steele and Josephs, 1990). Individuals who consume alcohol may be more responsive to immediate, salient cues, such as engaging in sex because they are aroused, which could lead to risky sexual behavior (MacDonald et al, 2000; Shuper et al, 2009).…”

“…Individuals who consume alcohol may be more responsive to immediate, salient cues, such as engaging in sex because they are aroused, which could lead to risky sexual behavior (MacDonald et al, 2000; Shuper et al, 2009). A person under the influence of alcohol may be unable to process environmental cues that would under normal circumstances lead them to use a condom during sex (Staples et al, 2015). Similarly, the use of methamphetamine before or during sex may impair one’s judgment, leading individuals to ignore cues indicating that they should use a condom (Molitor et al, 1998).…”