Is it “Sex”?: College students' interpretations of sexual behavior terminology

Bogart, Laura M.; Cecil, Heather; Wagstaff, David A.; Pinkerton, Steven D.; Abramson, Paul R.

doi:10.1080/00224490009552027

Cited by 94 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This emphasis on the male orgasm, to include the belief that the male orgasm is more easily achieved, is consistent with previous research (Bogart et al, 2000;Frith, 2013;McCarthy and Wald, 2013). Anthony's quote reflects the application of the gender hierarchy for understanding sexual pleasure, where the male orgasm is understood as the pinnacle of sexual pleasure (and upsetting, if not achieved), whereas for women, the friction (created, significantly, by the male penis) "is good enough. "…”

Section: Frustration Stemming From What?supporting

confidence: 76%

The Limits of Heteronormative Sexual Scripting: College Student Development of Individual Sexual Scripts and Descriptions of Lesbian Sexual Behavior

Pham

2016

Front. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Simon and Gagnon's sexual script theory identifies multitiered influences, which shape individual ideas about sexual relationships. The cultural celebration of heterosexuality as the accepted standard dominates major social institutions and permeates cultural sexual messages. The reception of these heteronormative messages influences the formation of individualized sexual scripts; however, how individuals apply these individualized scripts to understanding the sexual lives of others is little understood. More specifically, what are the effects of heteronormative sexual scripting for imagining a sexual scenario not marked by a male-female partnership? This study asked a sample of heterosexual, bisexual, and non-identified college students at a 4-year private institution in the northeastern United States to define lesbian sex. Results suggest the influence of culturally heteronormative sexual messages for orienting one's initial understanding of what sex is, though participants described various levels of acceptance, rejection, and/or revision of these messages as they formed their own scripts. However, when asked to define lesbian sex, participants drew from the more rigid heteronormative cultural script to form their definitions. The association of lesbian sex with vaginal penetration by a phallic substitute, such as a dildo, affirmed the overarching influence of the heterosexual, male-centric sexual standard for shaping the individual sexual imaginary.

show abstract

Section: Frustration Stemming From What?supporting

confidence: 76%

The Limits of Heteronormative Sexual Scripting: College Student Development of Individual Sexual Scripts and Descriptions of Lesbian Sexual Behavior

Pham

2016

Front. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, both Pitts and Rahman (2001) in their British sample and Sanders and Reinisch (1999) in their American sample found that male students adopted a broader definition of having sex than did female students. In contrast, neither Randall and Byers (2003) nor Bogart et al (2000) found sex differences in students' definitions of having sex and Horan et al (1998) did not find sex differences in abstinence definitions.…”

Section: Factors Affecting Definitions Of Abstinencementioning

confidence: 65%

“…We hypothesized that students would be less likely to include sexual activity involving bidirectional genital stimulation, and more likely to include behaviors involving unidirectional genital stimulation and no genital stimulation in their definitions of abstinence than in their definitions of having sex, but that there would not be a one-to-one correspondence between these definitions. Randall and Byers (2003) found that students were more likely to define a sexual activity as having sex if it included orgasm than if the same activity did not include orgasm (see also Bogart et al, 2000;Pitts & Rahman, 2001). Therefore, we also predicted that students would be less likely to define a behavior as abstinence if it included orgasm than if it did not include orgasm.…”

Section: Definitions Of Abstinencementioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, recipients of these programs may rely on their own idiosyncratic understanding of sexual terms such as having sex and abstinence. In fact, a series of studies conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have shown that there is considerable variability in how university students define having sex (Pitts & Rahman, 2001;Randall & Byers, 2003;Richter & Song, 1999;Sanders & Reinisch, 1999; see also Bogart, Cecil, Wagstaff, Pinkerton, & Abramson, 2000;Carpenter, 2001). Although the vast majority of participants (more than 94%) in these four studies included penile-vaginal intercourse in their definitions of sex, fewer participants (between 70% and 90%) considered penile-anal intercourse to constitute having sex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 1 more Smart Citation

University Students’ Definitions of Sexual Abstinence and Having Sex

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We asked 298 heterosexual Canadian university students about their definitions of the terms abstinence and having sex. For both terms, students were provided with a list of 17 sexual behaviors and indicated whether they would include each in their definition. The majority of both male and female students included activities that did not involve genital stimulation in their definition of sexual abstinence and did not include these activities in their definition of having sex. Conversely, most students did not include bidirectional sexual stimulation (penile-vaginal intercourse or penile-anal intercourse) in their definitions of sexual abstinence but did include them in their definitions of having sex. Students were quite mixed in whether activities involving unidirectional genital stimulation (e.g., oral sex, genital fondling) constituted abstinence, having sex, or neither abstinence nor having sex. However, they were more likely to see these behaviors as abstinent than as having sex. Students were more likely to rate a behavior as abstinence if orgasm did not occur. A canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the patterns of association between a number of predictors and inclusions of behaviors involving no genital stimulation, unidirectional stimulation, and bidirectional genital stimulation in abstinence definitions. The results indicated that male participants who were more involved with their religion and sexually conservative, less sexually experienced, and who had not received sexual health education at home were more likely to define bidirectional genital stimulation and less likely to define no genital stimulation and unidirectional sexual stimulation as sexual abstinence. The research and health promotion implications of these results are discussed.

show abstract

“…Mothers were asked when their adolescents would ''begin making love/having sex'' and were asked whether or not their adolescents had experienced ''sexual intercourse.'' Sources suggest that while many might assume such questions refer to vaginal sex, others may consider oral and anal sex inclusively (Bogart, Cecil, Wagstaff, Pinkerton, & Abramson, 2000;Sanders & Reinisch, 1999). Moreover, in the case of gay and lesbian adolescents, vaginal sex would not be the most appropriate indicator of sexual debut.…”

Section: Sexual Behaviormentioning

confidence: 93%

Perceptions of Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior Among Mothers Living With and Without HIV: Does Dyadic Sex Communication Matter?

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous studies suggest that mothers can help adolescents make responsible sexual decisions by talking with them about sexual health. Yet, it is not clear how and when mothers make decisions about talking with their adolescents about sex. We sought to determine: (1) the accuracy of mothers' and adolescents' predictions of adolescents' age of sexual debut; and (2) if mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' sexual behavior affected the frequency of mother-adolescent communication about sexual topics and, in turn, if mother-adolescent communication about sexual topics affected mothers' accuracy in predicting adolescents' current and future sexual behavior. Participants were 129 urban, ethnic minority HIV-negative youth (52% male and 48% female; ages 10-14 years at baseline; ages 13-19 years at follow-up) and their mothers; 47% of mothers were HIV-positive. Most mothers and adolescents predicted poorly when adolescents would sexually debut. At baseline, mothers' communication with their early adolescents about sexual topics was not significantly associated with mothers' assessments of their early adolescents' future sexual behavior. At follow-up, mothers were more likely to talk with their adolescents about HIV prevention and birth control if they believed that their adolescents had sexually debuted, though these effects were attenuated by baseline levels of communication. Only one effect was found for adolescents' gender: mothers reported greater communication about sex with daughters. Studies are needed to determine how mothers make decisions about talking with their adolescents about sex, as well as to examine to what extent and in what instances mothers can reduce their adolescents' sexual risk behavior by providing comprehensive, developmentally appropriate sex education well before adolescents are likely to debut.

show abstract

Is it “Sex”?: College students' interpretations of sexual behavior terminology

Cited by 94 publications

References 17 publications

The Limits of Heteronormative Sexual Scripting: College Student Development of Individual Sexual Scripts and Descriptions of Lesbian Sexual Behavior

The Limits of Heteronormative Sexual Scripting: College Student Development of Individual Sexual Scripts and Descriptions of Lesbian Sexual Behavior

University Students’ Definitions of Sexual Abstinence and Having Sex

Perceptions of Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior Among Mothers Living With and Without HIV: Does Dyadic Sex Communication Matter?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About