Measurement of Sexual Risk Taking Among College Students

Abstract

Current measures of sexual risk taking are either too narrowly focused to be used with college students or do not have adequate psychometric properties. The goal of the current study was to develop a broad and psychometrically sound measure of sexual risk taking. A total of 613 undergraduate students (302 men, 311 women) at a mid-sized Midwestern university in the U.S. were surveyed to develop and gather reliability and validity information on a new measure of sexual risk, the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS). The measure was found to be multifactorial with five factors. The measure was found to have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The SRS also demonstrated evidence of convergent and concurrent validity by its relationships with reported number of sexual partners and history of infidelity as well as measures of sensation seeking, sexual desire, substance use, sexual excitation and inhibition, and sexual health consequences. Social desirability was not found to be related to sexual risk taking scores and threat of sexual disclosure was only weakly related. An investigation of sex differences revealed that men reported greater intentions to engage in sexual risk behaviors and greater overall sexual risk taking behavior compared to women. The SRS provides researchers with a valid and comprehensive measure of sexual risk taking that can be used to clarify inconsistent findings in the literature and to assess outcome in programs designed to prevent and reduce sexual risk behaviors among college students.

Infidelity in Heterosexual Couples: Demographic, Interpersonal, and Personality-Related Predictors of Extradyadic Sex

“…For example, in a study with heterosexual men (Bancroft et al 2004), SIS2 was a significant negative predictor of number of partners in the past three years with whom no condoms were used, and also of the lifetime number of one-night stands. Similarly, Turchik and Garske (2009) found significant correlations between SES and SIS2 and various sexual risk behaviors in both men and women. Sexual infidelity can be conceived of as a form of sexual risk taking, as it often involves some awareness of potentially negative consequences.…”

Connecting Experiences with Heterosexism and Sexual Behavior in a Sample of Ethnically Diverse Sexual Minority Men

“…This measure consists of 23 items across 5 subscales that assess sexual behavior with uncommitted partners, sex acts, impulsive sexual behaviors, intent to engage in sexual behaviors, and anal sex acts in the past six months. Overall, the scale has high internal consistency (α= .88), as do each of the five subscales of uncommitted partners (α= .88), sex acts (α= .80), impulsive sexual behaviors (α= .78), intent to engage in sexual behaviors, (α= .89), and anal sex acts (α= .61; [18]). …”

“…Sexual behavior was assessed using the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS; [18]). This measure consists of 23 items across 5 subscales that assess sexual behavior with uncommitted partners, sex acts, impulsive sexual behaviors, intent to engage in sexual behaviors, and anal sex acts in the past six months.…”

“…Items from the SRS were recoded into five categories from 0 -4 as recommended by Turchick and Garske [18]. Responses of 0 for the frequency of any item were coded as "0."…”

“…All frequencies greater than 0 were analyzed as if they represented 100% of responses. To categorize the remaining responses, the following recommendations by Turchick and Garske [18] were followed: 1 = 40%, 2 = 30%, 3 = 20%, and 4 = 10%. Due to the varying frequencies in many of these items, an attempt was made to adhere as closely to these guidelines as possible.…”