Motivations for Sex Among Low-Income African American Young Women

Deardorff, Julianna; Suleiman, Ahna Ballonoff; Santo, Teresa S. Dal; Flythe, Michelle; Gurdin, J. Barry; Eyre, Stephen L.

doi:10.1177/1090198112473112

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One's motivations for engaging in sexual activity, particularly those related to love and intimacy, can strongly affect contraceptive behaviors, especially nonuse (Bjelica, 2008). In a qualitative study with African American women, participants listed a variety of reasons people might engage in sex (e.g., love/feelings, for fun, curiosity, pressured, for money, for material things), and they linked lack of condom use most strongly with love and intimacy motivations (Deardorff, Suleiman, et al, 2013). In a U.S. focus group study with adult women, participants gave 146 reasons for having unprotected sex .…”

Section: Relationship Factors: Dyadic Influences and Partner Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

Higgins

Smith

2016

The Journal of Sex Research

173

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How contraceptives affect women’s sexual well-being is critically understudied. Fortunately, a growing literature focuses on sexual aspects of contraception, especially hormonal contraception’s associations with libido. However, a more holistic approach to contraceptive sexual acceptability is needed to capture the full range of women’s sexual experiences. We conducted a narrative literature review of this topic, working with an original sample of 3,001 citations published from 2005 to 2015. In Part 1, we draw from a subset of this literature (264 citations) to build a new conceptual model of sexual acceptability. Aspects include macro factors (gender, social inequality, culture, and structure), relationship factors (dyadic influences and partner preferences), and individual factors (sexual functioning, sexual preferences, such as dis/inhibition, spontaneity, pleasure, the sexual aspects of side effects, such as bleeding, mood changes, sexual identity and sexual minority status, and pregnancy intentions). In Part 2, we review the empirical literature on the sexual acceptability of individual methods (103 citations), applying the model as much as possible. Results suggest contraceptives can affect women’s sexuality in a wide variety of positive and negative ways that extend beyond sexual functioning alone. More attention to sexual acceptability could promote both women’s sexual well-being and more widespread, user-friendly contraceptive practices.

show abstract

Section: Relationship Factors: Dyadic Influences and Partner Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

Higgins

Smith

2016

The Journal of Sex Research

173

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many of the women who were HIV-infected described a willingness to make concessions in order to preserve their relationship with a male partner. The concept of trust, supported in prior studies (Deardorff et al 2013; Mallory 2008; Paranjape et al 2006; Smith 2015) emerged as an important factor in women’s decisions to forgo the use of condoms when engaging in sexual behaviours. Trust was described as assuming their partner would not expose them to an STI, trusting their partner’s assurance that he was not infected and forgoing condom use as a declaration of her trust within their relationship.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Several studies have investigated the motivations for sexual activity among African American women, particularly when engaging in concurrent sexual relationships (Deardorff et al 2013; Ludema et al 2015). These studies found that, while participants agreed that condom use was important when engaging in risky sexual activities (for money or material things), they were not motivated to consistently use condoms when engaging in casual sexual relationships with a ‘non-main’ partner, or indeed, to ever use condoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women’s decision-making about self-protection during sexual activity in the deep south of the USA: a grounded theory study

Konkle‐Parker

Fouquier

Portz

et al. 2017

Culture, Health & Sexuality

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many women continue to become infected with HIV, particularly in the Southeastern USA, despite widespread knowledge about methods to prevent its sexual transmission. This grounded theory investigation examined the decision-making process women use to guide their use or non-use of self-protective measures when engaging in sexual activity. Participants included women in the Mississippi cohort of the Women’s Interagency HIV Study who were infected with or at high risk for HIV. Theoretical sampling was used to recruit a sample of 20 primarily African American women aged between 26 and 56 years, living in rural and urban areas. Data were analysed using constant comparative method to generate a theory of the process that guided women’s self-protective decisions. Three key themes were identified: (1) sexual silence, an overall context of silence around sexuality in their communities and relationships; (2) the importance of relationships with male partners, including concepts of ‘love and trust’, ‘filling the void’ and ‘don’t rock the boat’; and (3) perceptions of risk, including ‘it never crossed my mind’, ‘it couldn’t happen to me’ and ‘assumptions about HIV’. These themes impacted on women’s understandings of HIV-related risk, making it difficult to put self-protection above other interests and diminishing their motivation to protect themselves.

show abstract

Daily diary study of adult men’s and women’s event-level sexual motivations and sexual behaviour

Hensel

Harezlak

et al. 2017

Sex. Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

IntroductionAs they move from adolescence into emerging and early adulthood, men and women continue to be at elevated risk for the adverse outcomes associated with sexual activity. 1 Traditional public health prevention approaches to this risk typically focus on changing an individual's behaviors (e.g. reducing sexual activity or consistent condom and contraceptive use). 2 A significant limitation of this focus, however, is that it obscures how the context of a given romantic/sexual relationship precedes and organizes the decisions people make about sex. 3,4 Many public health agencies now recognize that advancing sexual health requires greater attention to the partnership factors that are associated with STI risk and protection behaviors. [3][4][5] Part of this attention includes examination of how personal-and partner-specific affect motivates individuals to choose, exclude and/or combine specific behaviors as part of their sexual repertoire. 9,10 Background Gender Differences in Sexual MotivationsOver the past two decades, literature has documented a wide range different factors men and women cite as motivations for sexual activity. Some of these studies support gender differences in these motivations, suggesting that physical desirability, sexual pleasure or power, such as feeling "horny," wanting physical release or stress relief, are cited by more men as reasons to have sex, whereas the perceived emotional benefits of sex, such as psychological closeness, bonding, intensify commitment, love or affection, factor more prominently for women. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Other work has found gender similarities in sexual motivations for sex, with many young and adult men report enjoying close emotional ties to sexual partners, 13,14 and many women pursuing specific sexual activities in response to sexual desire specific sexual activities 15,16 Additionally, in a sample of young and emerging adults, 17 both men and women endorse satisfying sexual desires as a primary reason, and feeling in love with a boy/girlfriend as secondary reason, to have sex. 17 Emotional motivations for sex are similarly reported by both men and women. 6,18 Linking Sexual Motivations to Sexual BehaviorsLess is known about how specific sexual motivations link to specific sexual behaviors. In general, studies show that having sex for pleasure is typically associated with more penetrative sexual behaviors, such as men's receiving oral sex, or participating in vaginal or anal sex, whereas endorsing love, intimacy or other emotional reasons for sex is associated with lighter behaviors, such as kissing, genital touching, massage or a woman's receiving oral sex. [18][19][20] Other research has suggested that having sex for intimacy reasons may also be associated with more frequent sex. 18,21,22 Gender differences may exist in these patterns. For example, in a sample of college students, women reporting higher levels of emotional motives, including love and commitment, during sexual interactions involving only oral sex only, or during sexual inter...

show abstract

Motivations for Sex Among Low-Income African American Young Women

Cited by 5 publications

References 12 publications

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

Women’s decision-making about self-protection during sexual activity in the deep south of the USA: a grounded theory study

Daily diary study of adult men’s and women’s event-level sexual motivations and sexual behaviour

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About