The Accuracy of Self‐Reports of Condom Use and Sexual Behavior

Abstract

In a study of the accuracy of self‐reports of sexual behavior and condom use, 285 single, young adults in a large metropolitan area were interviewed once a week for 52 weeks, reporting on their sexual behavior each week. At 1‐, 3‐, 6‐, and 12‐month intervals, the individuals also provided self‐reports of the number of times they had engaged in sex and the number of times they had used condoms since they began participating in the study. These self‐reports were compared with aggregates of the weekly data, which served as a comparison standard for accuracy evaluation. The results indicate a fairly high level of accuracy in self‐reports, but with 2% to 5% outliers who are highly inaccurate. The results tend to favor the assessment of sexual behavior over moderate time durations (3 or 6 months) rather than short or long durations (1 month or 12 months) when trying to maximize self‐report accuracy. Accuracy was attenuated for individuals who tended to engage in sex frequently, especially at the 12‐month time durations.

Accuracy of Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI) and Self-Administered Questionnaires for the Assessment of Sexual Behavior

“…Our findings do suggest that the daily diary recall is a useful tool for both methodological as well as substantive questions related to sexual and substance use behaviors. Although implementing diary recalls in a study protocol requires time and effort for both the investigator as well as the participants, similar to work by Jaccard et al (2002), participants in this study completed the diaries conscientiously with few missing data. Effect sizes of common psychological predictors of accuracy (i.e., conscientiousness, depression, substance use, social desirability) were small and may, therefore, have limited impact on recall accuracy.…”

“…Several studies have found that sexual behaviors can be recalled consistently for intervals of 1-3 months (Carey, Carey, Maisto, Gordon, and Weinhardt, 2001;Graham et al, 2003;Jaccard et al, 2002). Longer time frames may be more representative of a person's sexual behavior patterns, but can be more difficult to recall.…”

“…Diaries also appear to be a reasonable form of data collection without undue participant burden. In a study of 285 women asked to return weekly surveys of their daily sexual behaviors for one year, the average amount of missing data for any given week was only 3.3% (Jaccard, McDonald, Wan, Dittus, and Quinlan, 2002). Measurement error should also be reduced because of the privacy of diaries, and the temporal proximity from the time of the sexual event to the recalling of the behavior.…”

Stages of Consistent Condom Use, Partner Intimacy, Condom Use Attitude, and Self-Efficacy in African-American Crack Cocaine Users

“…The accuracy of self-reports, as an indicator of consistent condom use, has been questioned (de Visser & Smith, 2000;Turner & Miller, 1997;Weir, Roddy, Zekeng, & Ryan, 1999) but others (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2004;Jaccard, McDonald, Wan, Dittus, & Quinlan, 2002;Morris, 1993) have found self-reported measures reasonably accurate. Furthermore, in most cases, self-report remains one of a few feasible data collection methods for intimate sexual behaviors barring direct observation.…”

Condom use with a casual partner: What distinguishes college students' use when intoxicated?

“…Schroder et al (2003) argued that count data are preferable for evaluation studies, whereas measures of relative condom use, such as the measures used in this study, are preferable for etiological and correlational research. Experiments that have compared diary reports with retrospections of up to a year find that retrospective recall of condom use is very accurate (Graham, Catania, Brand, Duong, & Canchola, 2003;Jaccard, McDonald, Wan, Dittus, & Quinlan, 2002). …”