Women's Unprotected Sex Intentions: Roles of Sexual Victimization, Intoxication, and Partner Perception

Abstract

Sexually victimized women may make sexual decisions differently than non-victimized women. This study used an eroticized scenario and laboratory alcohol administration to investigate the roles of victimization history, intoxication, and relationship context in women’s perceptions of a male partner and their subsequent intentions for unprotected sex. A community sample of 436 women completed childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adolescent/adult sexual assault (ASA) measures. After random assignment to an alcohol or control condition, participants read and projected themselves into a sexual scenario which depicted the male partner as having high or low potential for a lasting relationship. Participants rated their perceptions of his intoxication, STI risk level, and anticipated reactions to insistence on condom use. They then indicated their likelihood of allowing the partner to decide how far to go sexually (abdication) and engaging in unprotected sex. SEM analyses revealed that intoxication predicted greater unprotected sex likelihood indirectly via abdication. CSA and ASA predicted partner perceptions, which in turn predicted unprotected sex likelihood. These findings indicate that, compared to non-victimized counterparts, sexually victimized women may respond differently in sexual encounters partly as a function of their perceptions of partners’ STI risk and anticipated reactions to condom insistence.

Background Predictors and Event-Specific Characteristics of Sexual Aggression Incidents

“…Although estimates vary across studies due to sample characteristics and survey methods, up to 80% of women report sexual victimization and up to 64% of men report sexual aggression (SA) perpetration since age 14 (Abbey, Parkhill, BeShears, Clinton-Sherrod, & Zawacki, 2006; Masters et al, 2013), which includes nonconsensual sexual contact as well as attempted and completed nonconsensual sexual intercourse. Because many of these sexual assaults involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, the victim, or both (Abbey, 2011; Testa, 2002), continued empirical investigation of alcohol-involved sexual assaults is essential.…”

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

“…Extensive evidence has found that CSA women report inconsistent condom use, have more sexual partners, and are less able to attend to risk cues in a sexual situation (for a review, see Loeb et al, 2002). However, few studies have used experimental paradigms to examine in-the-moment sexual risk-taking, and only one study has examined the relationship between CSA and sexual abdication intentions (Masters et al, 2013). Despite higher rates of sexual risk among CSA women than in the general population, some studies find no differences between abused and non-abused women in sexual risk-taking (Loeb et al, 2002).…”

“…Only one experiment to date examined women’s sexual victimization history, alcohol intoxication, and sexual abdication. Masters et al (2013) found that alcohol increased sexual abdication directly and indirectly; CSA increased abdication indirectly via adult sexual assault and perceptions of the partner. Sexual abdication was positively associated with unprotected sex likelihood.…”

“…Sexual abdication, the willingness to let a partner decide what to do sexually, is a risky behavior that may increase risk of contracting STIs, but has received little investigation (Masters et al, 2013; Zawacki et al, 2009). The current study examines two factors that may be related to women’s in-the-moment intentions to abdicate sexual decision making to their partner: alcohol myopia and childhood sexual abuse (CSA).…”

“…As operationalized in previous experimentation (Masters et al, 2013; Stoner et al, 2007), sexual abdication constitutes a risky behavior because it involves allowing a partner to decide what to do, including unprotected sex. Sexual abdication may be especially relevant to CSA women who often feel powerless and unassertive in sexual situations and have difficulty refusing unwanted sexual advances (Johnsen & Harlow, 1996; Katz, May, Sorensen, & DelTosta, 2010; Marx, Heidt, & Gold, 2005).…”