Talk About “Hooking Up”: The Influence of College Student Social Networks on Nonrelationship Sex

Abstract

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.

Casual Sex: Integrating Social, Behavioral, and Sexual Health Research

“…For instance, religiosity (religious feelings and attendance at religious services) was related to lower frequency of engaging in intercourse during a hook-up encounter (Penhollow et al 2007) and thus may represent an adaptive sociocultural constraint. High degrees of closeness to peer social networks and peer communication about hook-ups were associated with more sexual hook-ups (Holman and Sillars 2012); this may be considered a facultative response to adaptively react to peer expectations and local norms.…”

Predictors of Sexual Scripts Among Young, Sexually-Active, Substance- Using African American Women

“…Several studies to date explored sexual scripts of AA women [36,49,54,55,59,72,73,75,77,94]. To our knowledge, this is the first study to move beyond the description of sexual scripts to identify and describe factors that are likely along the pathway to sexual script development among YSSAAW.…”

“…face-to-face meetings. Codes were collapsed into themes informed by Wingood's focus of Connell's TGP on the powerless of AA women in sexual decision making [44][45][46]66] and Stephen and Phillip focus on female's sexual script development research of AA women [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The research team then conducted a frequency analysis on emerging themes using NVIVO11 and Microsoft Excel software.…”

“…To date, these concepts have not been considered in the guiding theoretical framework of HIV prevention interventions with YSSAAW [72]. Historically, researchers have explored varied types of sexual scripts [49,54,55,57,59,[72][73][74][75][76][77]. Most recently, US-based research related to sexual scripts explored gender and sexual behavior among adolescents and college students [78,79], stigma associated with being sexually inexperienced [80], sexual scripts that tolerate sexual coercion among college students and nonconsensual sex/rape among AA and White adolescent and college women [81][82][83], hip hop media as a powerful mechanism promoting saliency of sexual scripts for AA women [84] and most related to this study was a qualitative study assessing the effects of sexual victimization history of undergraduate women on hypothetical sexual script characteristics [85].…”

“…Stephens and Phillips' focus of females' sexual script development research with AA women explores ways culture shapes perception, expression of appropriate and socially acceptable sexual behavior, individual level expectations, and experiences of behaviors that occur in series [49] within a population at high risk for HIV [36,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. The SST articulates the way sexual scripts provide instructions (i.e., a roadmap) for clarifying the intention and meaning of sexual cues and responding to them, which in turn informs how men and women behave in sexual situations [50,51,[60][61][62][63].…”