Sexual Sensation Seeking and Self-Efficacy's Relationship to Sexual Risk Taking Behavior

Abstract

Research demonstrates that young adults typically score high on knowledge of safe sex practices. Unfortunately, knowledge about risk is often quite unrelated to practicing safer sex behaviors; and STD infection and HIV/ AIDS are increasing in young adult populations. Young adults are more uniquely at risk for developing sexually transmitted diseases because they change partners more regularly than other age groups, and believe in their own invulnerability to disease and trauma. The purpose of this study was to further identify factors that contribute to college students' decisions to engage in risky sexual behavior.One hundred and sixty-seven young men and women ages 18 to 25 were recruited from a variety of majors at a northern California university. Participants filled out confidential online questionnaires composed of questions regarding sexual behaviors.The Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale (Kalichman, Johnson, Adair, Rompa, Multhauf & Kelly, 1994) and the Sexual Self-Efficacy Scale (Rosentahal, Moore & Flynn, 1991) were also included in the questionnaire.Individuals who exhibited high sexual sensation seeking behaviors were found to score significantly higher on sexual risk. In contrast, sexual self-efficacy did not appear to be related to sexual risk. These unexpected results suggest new approaches to intervention/protection campaigns that will successfully target this age group. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Gender and Age Differences in the Relationship between Sensation-Seeking and Sexual Risk-Taking Behavior among Adolescents

“…They attributed these gender differences to culturally transmitted social norms and psychological mechanisms, promoting novel-seeking behaviors among male adolescents. These findings have been supported by several other researchers (Coulter, 2007;Rahmani & Lasarani, 2012;Rosenblit, 2001;Steinberg et al, 2008).…”