Relationships Among Substance Use, Multiple Sexual Partners, and Condomless Sex

Abstract

Male and female students manifest different behaviors in condomless sex. This cross-sectional, exploratory, correlational study examined the differences in risk factors for condomless sex between male and female high school students, using secondary data from 4,968 sexually active males and females participating in the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Results in descriptive statistics and multivariate binary logistic regressions revealed that condomless sex was reported as 39.70% in general. A greater proportion of females engaged in condomless sex (23.26%) than did males (16.44%). Physical abuse by sex partners was a common reason for failure to use condoms regardless of gender. Lower condom use was found in (1) those experiencing forced sex by a partner in males, (2) female smokers, and (3) female with multiple sex partners. Thus, sexual health education should address the different risk factors and consider gender characteristics to reduce condomless sex.

Linking Patterns of Substance Use With Sexual Risk-Taking Among Female Adolescents With and Without Histories of Maltreatment

“…Notably, the moderating effect of maltreatment status on the link between tobacco use and sexual risk-taking was especially strong. By providing evidence that female adolescent tobacco users are at inordinate risk for participating in sexual risk-taking when a history of maltreatment is present, our study extends prior evidence supporting a positive relationship between tobacco use and sexual risk-taking among female adolescents [5,22,23], indicates a need for further research into tobacco related sexual health disparities among female adolescents who have been maltreated, and draws attention to an opportunity for targeting maltreated female adolescent tobacco users in our sexual risk-taking prevention efforts.…”

“…Even though these relationships were particularly robust across female adolescents, our findings also point to the need for secondary prevention of polysubstance use, alcohol use, and tobacco use for maltreated female adolescents that addresses sexual risk-taking. Despite evidence that interventions can be effective when targeting more than one risk behavior [38] and that substance use and sexual risk-taking are related [22], few interventions explicitly target this intersection [39]. More research is therefore needed to identify factors that explain the relationships between polysubstance use, alcohol use, and tobacco use among maltreated female adolescents’ to fully inform the development of more targeted prevention strategies for this at-risk population.…”

“…Evidence indicates that earlier initiation [18,19] and use of substances [4,20,21] have the potential to impact adolescents’ sexual health by increasing their risk of participating in sexual risk-taking. Among female adolescents, tobacco use is related to decreased condom use during sex [22,23] and a greater number of sexual partners [5]. Studies have also linked earlier initiation of alcohol to less condom use [18] and earlier initiation of cannabis use to a greater numbers of lifetime sexual partners [19].…”

Contraceptive Use Among Korean High School Adolescents: A Decision Tree Model

“…The variables regarding contraceptive use and 20 potential predictors for contraceptive use based on previous studies (Baskin-Sommers & Sommers, 2006; Cho & Ra, 2014; Hong & Kang, 2017; Kingree et al, 2000; Lee, 2017; Tucker et al, 2012; Zhao et al, 2016) were selected from the 14th (2018) KYRBS. Sex-related characteristics included sexual intercourse experience after drinking and sexual health education in school; health-related characteristics included subjective health status, depressive mood, suicidal ideation, suicidal plan, suicide attempt, violence, drinking, smoking, electronic cigarette use, and drug use.…”

“…Further, 7.9% of female high school students who had experience with sexual intercourse also reported becoming pregnant (Hong & Kang, 2017). Adolescent pregnancy is a major concern because of inadequate prenatal care, premature birth, and economic instability (Hong & Kang, 2017; Zhao et al, 2016). In addition, pregnant adolescents are stigmatized by others and forced to drop out of school or transfer to another school (Kim, 2014).…”