What messages can foster safer sex among young women? Experimental evidence concerning the role of emotions and moral norms

Abstract

Through a 2 × 2 × 2 quasi experimental design (N = 254), this research investigated if a social campaign eliciting positive emotions and activating moral norms might enhance condom negotiation skills, intended and estimated condom among young women with or without past sexual experience with casual partners. Emotions had a main effect on one of the six condom negotiation strategies we considered; for most of the other variables an interaction effect with moral norms and/or past behaviour emerged. Concerning estimated condom use, positive emotions worked better than negative ones when moral norms were salient. With respect to negotiations skills, positive rather than negative emotions seemed more effective for women with past causal sexual experience. In women without this kind of experience, positive emotions seemed to work better when moral norms were salient. Moral norms had a main effect on negotiation self-efficacy, but not in the predicted direction: when moral norms were more salient women were found to be less confident about their negotiation ability. These results suggest that a message which makes moral norms salient should at the same time elicit positive emotions in order to be effective; moreover, messages should be carefully tailored according to women's past behaviour.

Fatores associados ao não uso de preservativo e prevalência de HIV, hepatites virais B e C e sífilis: estudo transversal em comunidades rurais de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, entre 2014 e 2016*

“…Other explanations may be associated with idiosyncratic factors or the surrounding social and economic environment. 16,24 The number of confirmed syphilis and hepatitis cases found in this survey was higher than that available on SINAN for Ouro Preto in the study period. This suggests possible shortcomings in the municipality's epidemiological surveillance and the need for greater coverage of testing.…”

Who is at risk? Gendered psychological correlates in Italian students’ sexual risk profiles

“…Sensation seeking describes one's propensity for exciting, optimal and novel levels of stimulation (Kalichman et al, 1994), and sensation-seeking individuals tend to engage in behaviours that increase the amount of stimulation they experience in order to seek arousal. Sexual intercourse, which is typically accompanied by physical excitement and high emotions (Matera et al, 2018;Norton et al, 2005), represents an emblematic way to obtain this kind of stimulation. Youth with higher levels of sexual sensation seeking might be more interested in having new sexual experiences than in seeking emotional connection with current partners, which could expose them to higher risk (Ritchwood et al, 2015).…”