Influences of sexual sensation seeking, alcohol consumption, and sexual arousal on women's behavioral intentions related to having unprotected sex.

Abstract

This experimental study examined effects of alcohol consumption and sexual sensation seeking on unprotected sex intentions, taking into account sexual arousal, indirectly discouraging sex, and condom insistence. Women (N=173; M age = 25.02) were randomly assigned to a control, placebo, low dose (target blood alcohol level = .04), or high dose (target blood alcohol level = .08) beverage condition. Participants projected themselves into a hypothetical sexual interaction with a man in which no condom was available. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that both sexual sensation seeking and alcohol dose directly increased sexual arousal early in the interaction, but later sexual arousal indirectly increased unprotected sex intentions by decreasing endorsement of indirect discouragement and, in turn, condom insistence. These findings help to clarify the role of alcohol consumption and sensation seeking in women's sexual decision making and point to the importance of examining it as a multi-stage process. KeywordsAlcohol Consumption; Sensation Seeking; Sexual Arousal; Risky Sex; Condom NegotiationThe proportion of AIDS cases in the US composed of women has increased dramatically over the last two decades, rising from 8% of the total in 1985 to 27% in 2005. Approximately 80% of new HIV cases in women are attributable to heterosexual transmission (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). Because consistent use of the male condom is still the most effective preventive strategy, intervention efforts have focused on ways to increase its use. However, for a woman to "use" a male condom, she must be able to insist on using one, and ultimately refuse to have sex if her male partner refuses to use one.Sexual decision making is a multi-stage process, involving a series of interactions with and responses to one's partner. When a woman wants to use a condom with a man, she may engage in a series of strategies, such as discouraging him from continuing to pursue sex if one is not available and insisting on using one before ultimately deciding whether or not to have unprotected sex. Contributing to the complexities of these interactions is likely to be concurrent Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeanette Norris, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, 1107 NE 45th St., Suite 120, Seattle, WA 98105. Email: norris@u.washington.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptPsychol Addict Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 March 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript sexual arousal. To obtain a full understanding of how sexual decisions are made, it is necessary to study both situational and predispositional influences on this process. Alcohol consumption and sensation seeking are two such influences that have jointly been associated with risky sexual behavior (Hendershot, Stoner, George, & Norris, 2007;Kalichman & Cain, 2004;Kalichman, Simbayi, Jooste, Cain, & Cherry, 2006). However, little research has addressed the ne...

Sexual Disinhibition Under Sexual Arousal: Evidence for Domain Specificity in Men and Women

“…Regarding the effects of sexual arousal, many studies have measured subjective or genital sexual arousal and found that individual differences in sexual arousal in response to arousing stimuli were associated with individual differences in the self-reported readiness to engage in unprotected sex (Abbey, Saenz, & Buck, 2005;Norris et al, 2009) or differences in self-estimated likelihood to sexually aggress in men (Davis, Norris, George, Martell, & Heiman, 2006a). Measured sexual arousal has also been found to mediate the effects of alcohol on the likelihood of agreeing to unprotected sex in men and women Prause, Staley, & Finn, 2011), women's rape myth acceptance (Davis, Norris, George, Martell, & Heiman, 2006b), and men's self-rated likelihood to sexually aggress (Davis et al, 2006a).…”

Relations Between Substance Use and Personal Dispositions Towards Out-of-Control Sexual Behaviors Among Young Adults

“…It could also be that sexual sensation seeking may be shaped or influenced by the college atmosphere which is somewhat conducive to alcohol use, parties and lesser restrictions on sexual activities to a considerable extent, although sexual compulsivity may not be influenced to such an extent by college social environments. Studies have shown that sensation seeking is associated with increased alcohol consumption and unprotected intercourse (Cyder, Flory, Rainer, & Smith, 2009;Norris et al, 2009). Given that it has also been reported that young women may internalize more negative feelings after consuming alcohol than men (Gullette & Lyons, 2005), further investigations of the associations between sensation seeking, alcohol use and college women's sexual decision making process are warranted.…”

Examination of Personality, Social and Cognitive Factors on the Co-Occurrence of Health Risk Behaviors among Multi-Problem Youth: The Utility of An Integrative Framework

“…The second highest mean score was for the item "I like new and exciting sexual experiences and sensations" with a mean score of 2.75 (SD = 1.08). In this sample, adolescents tended to endorse statements that reflected a disposition for sexual sensation-seeking characteristics that are significant risk factors for higher levels of AOD use and related consequences (Norris et al, 2009).…”

“…However, it has been noted that they may play an important role in screening for high-risk adolescents with high scores on sexual sensation-seeking. Many studies have conceptualized sexual sensation-seeking as a distal risk factor for involvement in health risk behaviors (e.g., Kalichman et al, 2004, Norris et al, 2009. Consequently, fewer studies have proposed ways to induce behavioral change via the mechanism of modifying sexual sensation-seeking.…”

“…The influence of sexual sensation-seeking (SSS) on sexual risk behaviors has been documented in a number of studies (e.g., DiClemente & Wingood, 2003;Norris et al, 2009). In general, these studies showed that positive endorsements of sexual sensation-seeking were related to an increased likelihood for engagement in sexual risk behaviors.…”