Title
Condoms And Contexts: Profiles Of Sexual Risk And Safety Among Young Heterosexually Active Men
Publication Date
9-2-2015
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Heterosexual men's sexual safety behavior is important to controlling the U.S. epidemic of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While sexual safety is often treated as a single behavior, such as condom use, it can also be conceptualized as resulting from multiple factors. Doing so can help us achieve more nuanced understandings of sexual risk and safety within partner-related contexts. We used latent class analysis with data collected online from 18- to 25-year-old heterosexually active U.S. men (n = 432) to empirically derive a typology of the patterns of sexual safety strategies they employed. Indicators were sexual risk-reduction strategies used in the past year with the most recent female sex partner: condom use, discussing sexual histories, STI testing, agreeing to be monogamous, and discussing birth control. We identified four subgroups: Risk Takers (12%), Condom Reliers (25%), Multistrategists (28%), and Relationship Reliers (35%). Partner-related context factorsÑnumber of past-year sex partners, relationship commitment, and sexual concurrencyÑpredicted subgroup membership. Findings support tailoring STI prevention to men's sexual risk-safety subgroups. Interventions should certainly continue to encourage condom use but should also include information on how partner-related context factors and alternate sexual safety strategies can help men reduce risk for themselves and their partners.
Publication Title
The Journal Of Sex Research
Volume
52
Issue
7
First Page
781
Last Page
794
DOI
10.1080/00224499.2014.953023
Publisher Policy
pre-print, post-print
Recommended Citation
Masters, N. Tatiana; Casey, Erin A.; Beadnell, Blair; Morrison, Diane M.; Hoppe, Marilyn J.; and A., Elizabeth Wells, "Condoms And Contexts: Profiles Of Sexual Risk And Safety Among Young Heterosexually Active Men" (2015). Social Work & Criminal Justice Publications. 52.
https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/socialwork_pub/52