Partner‐specific relationship characteristics and condom use among young people with sexually transmitted diseases

This study describes associations of partner‐specific relationship characteristics with consistent condom use among 297 young people (ages 13–24) with sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Relationship‐specific variables were relationship quality, reasons for sex, relationship duration, duration of sexual relationship, coital frequency, “established” versus “new” sexual partner, cohabitation, children, sexual coercion, and drug or alcohol use associated with coitus. Relationship characteristics associated with consistent condom use included lower relationship quality, lower emotional reasons for sex, lower coital frequency, sex with a new partner, noncohabitation, and not having a child with the partner. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, factors exhibiting independent associations with consistent condom use were lower relationship quality, lower coital frequency, and not having a child with the partner. While condom use with potentially high risk new partners is important, other types of relationships are also risky but associated with lower likelihood of consistent condom use. Better understanding of complex relationship characteristics is necessary to improve STD intervention programs.     

Condom Use,Condom Refusal,and Substituted Sexual Behaviors Among Youth at Higher and Lower Risk for HIV Infection

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to describe sexual behaviors that youth substitute for protected intercourse when a partner refuses to use a condom or a condom is not used. Participants included: (a) 120 adolescents (mean age 17.2 years) undergoing substance abuse treatment and (b) 171 university students (mean age 21.3 years). The treatment sample reported significantly higher levels of discrete risk factors for HIV exposure. While only a small proportion of each sample experienced outright refusals by partners to use condoms, the majority of participants in each sample used condoms inconsistently with main partners. The university sample reported more substituted behaviors (lower risk and total) when partners did not want to use condoms. Yet, substantial proportions of participants in each sample engaged in unprotected intercourse. Implications for social work and health promotion efforts directed toward youth at risk for HIV/STD exposures are discussed.     

Cross-National Coverage of HIV/AIDS: A Community Structure Approach

Community structure analysis compared cross-national coverage of responsibility to fight HIV/AIDS in newspapers in 18 countries, selecting articles of 250+ words from May 7, 2003, to September 13, 2013. The resulting 291 articles were coded for “prominence” and “direction” (“government,” “society,” including nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]/foreign aid or “balanced/neutral” coverage), and combined for composite scores in each newspaper's “Media Vector” (range = .4974 to ?.1465). Newspaper support for governmental versus societal involvement was 9 to 9 (50/50). Pearson correlations revealed significant relationships in privilege and vulnerability categories: public knowledge of HIV/AIDS preventative measures and general health of the population. Regression of national characteristics against Media Vectors yielded percentage of women who know condom use prevents HIV (63.7% of variance), percentage of men who know condom use prevents HIV, and percentage of population undernourished, collectively totaling 84.8% of variance, all correlated with support for government intervention. A second regression analysis excluding self-report variables found that “% population undernourished” and “% females in the workforce” (combined 52.8% of variance) were linked to coverage supporting government responsibility. “AIDS incidence” (13.6% of variance) was linked to support for “societal” intervention. Most of the variance was linked to coverage supporting government responsibility for HIV/AIDS.     

Sexual Decision Making for the “Better Than Average” College Student

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the impact of downward social comparison and the “known partner is a safe partner” heuristic on college students’ sexual decisions. Participants: One hundred-eighty heterosexual or bisexual undergraduate college students. Methods: Participants read dating vignettes that varied on perspective and familiarity and then rated the likelihood the couple would engage in sexual intercourse and use a condom. Results: There were no differences in rated likelihood based on familiarity, suggesting that the students did not view the 2 partner types as significantly different. Students rated the likelihood of sexual intercourse lower and condom use higher when the vignette was presented from the second person perspective. Conclusions: The students’ use of downward social comparison is consistent with the “better than average effect,” suggesting that the students perceive their own behavior as safe. The implication is that safer sex messages might be most effective if they focus on what students will gain by practicing safer sex behaviors, not just avoidance of a risk behavior.     

Asking Only “Did You Use a Condom?” Underestimates the Prevalence of Unprotected Sex Among Perinatally HIV Infected and Perinatally Exposed But Uninfected Youth

Among young adults who use condoms, incomplete condom use (putting a condom on after beginning or taking a condom off before finishing sex) and condom failure (condom breaking or slipping off during sex) are common. Therefore, sexual behavior surveys that ask only if a condom was used are likely to underestimate the actual prevalence of unprotected sex. This study examined data from 135 sexually active perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV+) youth and perinatally exposed but uninfected (PHIV?) youth, ages 13 to 24. Participants were asked whether they used a condom on their first and their most recent occasion of vaginal sex. Youth who reported using a condom were asked a follow-up question about whether there was any time during that occasion when sex was not protected by a condom. This follow-up question identified additional participants— almost double the proportions who initially said they did not use a condom—who had unprotected sex. Incomplete condom use was similar among PHIV+ and PHIV?youth, boys and girls, Latinos and African Americans, and younger and older youth. These findings illustrate the importance of asking specifically about whether any unprotected behavior occurred from start to finish of sex to achieve more valid estimates of sexual risk behavior.     

How public relations professionals can use food labels as effective communication tools

Food product labels impact everyone's quality of life. Today, informed consumers may attempt to read label contents—especially if they have medical concerns that require limitation of calories, sodium and fat in their diets. Unfortunately, even though these contents are listed, they could be difficult to read because of “graphic problems.” This is an unnecessary problem that can be eliminated by applying knowledge of typography and technology.This study utilized a panel of graphic arts education experts who reviewed suggested Food and Drug Administration (FDA) label guidelines. If the panel participants thought that “graphic problems” exist in the guidelines, they were asked to make suggestions to indicate how food labels could be prepared more effectively—at no additional cost.     

Letters to the editor

Relatively little attention has been paid to the use and importance of labels used by men who have sex with men to describe insertive or receptive sexual behavior during intercourse. This study examines sexual self‐labels, sexual behavior, HIV transmission risk, and psychological functioning among 205 HIV‐seropositive men who have sex with men. The majority of participants (88%) identified as a “top, “ a “bottom, “ or “versatile. “ Tops were more likely to engage in insertive anal intercourse than bottoms, and bottoms were more likely to engage in receptive anal intercourse than tops, with versatiles reporting intermediate rates of both behaviors. Although the results suggest preliminary evidence regarding the predictive utility of self‐labels, sexual behaviors of self‐label groups were greatly overlapping. Differences were found among self‐label groups in gay self‐identification, internalized homophobia, sexual sensation seeking, and anxiety. Results suggest an added value in assessing self‐labels in addition to asking about sexual behavior.     

Cultural Factors and Program Implications

ABSTRACT

Despite the effectiveness of condoms in HIV prevention, programs and services encouraging HIV prevention have failed to increase condom use among U.S. Latino populations. The authors identify six “myths” preventing condom use among Latinos. It is suggested that programs address these myths surrounding condom use in HIV prevention strategies targeting Latino communities in order to make interventions more salient to Latino populations and, therefore, more effective.     

Accounting for unsafe sex: Interviews with men who have sex with men

Semi‐structured one‐on‐one interviews with 102 gay and bisexual men were conducted to examine the reasoning processes men use to exempt themselves from practicing safe sex. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed the following recurring themes: (a) Many men who were in couple relationships avoided condom use for reasons involving intimacy or trust, or because both partners were HIV‐negative; (b) unsafe sex sometimes occurred inadvertently or involuntarily; (c) negative moods and self‐images were associated with unsafe sex; (d) by “intuiting” that their partner was HIV‐negative, participants exempted themselves from the need for safe sex; and (e) when the boundary between safe and unsafe was unclear, participants used a combination of unofficial and official guidelines to determine what is safe.     

Prevalence of Sexual Trauma History Using Behaviorally Specific Methods of Assessment in First Year College Students

There are several challenges associated with evaluating the prevalence of sexual trauma, including child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault. The aim of this study was to assess sexual trauma prevalence rates among first year college students (N = 954) using behaviorally specific questions and a more representative recruitment sample that did not rely on self-selection. Participants completed a list of sexual trauma questions, including general questions containing labels such as “rape” or “abuse” as well as behaviorally specific questions that describe specific behaviors that qualify as sexual trauma without labels. Results indicated that 6.7% of the sample reported at least one incident of child sexual abuse, with similar rates for men and women. Women were more likely to report a history of adult sexual assault, which was reported by 12.4% of the total sample. Participants were also more likely to endorse a history of sexual trauma when answering behaviorally specific rather than general “label” questions. Women survivors in particular were more likely than men to identify their experiences as abuse/assault (66.7% versus 21.1% for child sexual abuse), which may help explain prevalence differences between men and women in prior research. Men may be less likely than women to label their experiences as abuse and may be underidentified in sexual trauma research without the use of behaviorally specific questions. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the prevalence of sexual trauma is better assessed using behaviorally specific questions and that this is an important topic of study among both men and women.     

“Those foreigners ruin everything here”: Interactional functions of ethnic labelling among pupils in the Netherlands

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of ethnic labelling practices by examining their interactional functions among secondary school pupils in Venlo, the Netherlands. Pupils with migration backgrounds often labelled themselves and others “Turk,” “Moroccan,” or “foreigner,” and labelled others “Dutch.” The paper highlights that ethnic labelling can be understood not only as identity construction, but also as interactional work. I build on membership categorization analysis (MCA), complemented by conversation analysis (CA), to analyse how pupils’ use of ethnic labels evoked an expert role which altered interactants’ power positions; and how, often, pupils engaged in jocular mockery with ethnic labels and in that way mitigated the effects of exclusionary and stigmatizing discourses about people with migration backgrounds. Finally, I argue that pupils’ labelling practices had locally occasioned meanings and functions, but that they ultimately reflect wider‐spread systems of categorization and marginalization of people with migration backgrounds in the Netherlands.     

Influence of Partner Type on Acceptability and Likelihood of Use of a Rectal Microbicide Among Young Men Who Have Sex With Men in the United States and Puerto Rico

This study examined how acceptability of placebo gel with receptive anal intercourse (RAI) and likelihood of future rectal microbicide use varied across partner types. Because no rectal microbicide is available yet, use of placebo permitted the study of gel use behavior in real-life circumstances. A total of 87 men who have sex with men (MSM) aged 18 to 30 years inserted placebo gel rectally before RAI during 12 weeks. Using mixed-methods design, participants completed a behavioral questionnaire and in-depth interview. In all, 62 men (71.3%) reported gel use with a lover (i.e., spouse equivalent, boyfriend), 32 (36.8%) with a one-night stand (i.e., man with whom you had sex once), and 29 (33.3%) with an “other” male partner. While gel acceptability was high across partner types, use with lovers was facilitated by trust and familiarity; yet trust made participants believe protection was less necessary. Conversely, participants expressed high likelihood of using gel with one-night stands, whom they perceived as riskier; yet they felt less comfortable discussing gel with them, often resorting to covert use or forgoing gel. A successful microbicide will be positioned as a sexual pleasure enhancer so that men can present it to their lovers and other partners as a gel that improves sex and secondarily prevents human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).     

The Social Dynamics of Technical Innovation in the Computing World*

The “computing world,” all those people and groups that collectively produce computers and computer-based services is an especially complex, dynamic and diffuse social world. Technical innovation is a dominant feature of the world. It is organized to provide a continuous flow of innovations from participants who specialize in innovation through many other participants to the final consumers of computer-based services. Technical innovations often flow across a large number of “markets” which are composed of only a few classes of participants such as “innovators” and “vendors” or of “users” and “consumers.” This paper identifies the major orientations taken on by participants in the computing world and examines some of the markets across which innovations are negotiated. The computing world is organized so that each market is biased in favor of innovations moving from suppliers to their customers. From this viewpoint, “innovation” is a dominant structural interest in computing around which participants organize their activities and to which they must continually adjust.     

Relations Among Religiousness,Spirituality, and Sexual Practices

Although religiousness is commonly associated with limited sexual activity, little is known about spirituality's unique effect. Study aims involved measuring spirituality's unique affect on young adults' sexual practices (frequency of sex, number of sexual partners, and condom use) and determining whether spirituality adds significant increment over well-established predictors. Three hundred fifty-three (61% female) heterosexual young adults aged 17 to 29 completed this cross-sectional, self-report questionnaire study. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated spirituality is positively associated with participants' number of sexual partners and frequency of sex without a condom. Spirituality contributed to the prediction of participants' number of partners and condom use above and beyond the variance accounted for by religiousness, alcohol use, and impulsivity. A moderating effect for gender was found. Spirituality appears to have a unique and strong association with the sexual practices of young adults, particularly women, and should be assessed in future studies of young adults' sexual practices.     

Navigating labels,seeking recognition for victimhood: Diaspora activism after mass-atrocities

This article analyses diaspora mobilization for transitional justice as efforts to gain recognition for victim-based identities. Building on research among diaspora groups from Rwanda and Sri Lanka in North America and Europe, the article investigates how diaspora actors in their quest for victimhood recognition navigate, make use of and challenge labels such as “victim”, “perpetrator”, “genocide”, “survivor” and “terrorist”. The article uses Jacoby's theory of victimhood to draw attention to the diasporic space as particularly conducive for recognition struggles, and discuss the different stages through which victim-based identities are constructed. The empirical examples reveal how serveral competing and interrelated processes towards victimhood recognition are simultaneously at work, and how diaspora actors both refute and creatively make use of categories that assign blame or signal victimhood and resilience.     

Associations of Alcohol and Marijuana Use With Condom Use Among Young Adults: The Moderating Role of Partner Type

This study used multiple levels of analysis to examine associations of alcohol and marijuana (AM) use with condom use, including the moderating role of partner type, in a general sample of 754 sexually active young adults (mean age = 18.6, SD = 0.63; 77% non-White). Multivariable models examined associations over the past 30 days (global) and at the most recent sexual event (event specific). Over the past 30 days, participants who had a recent casual partner and used both substances reported a higher proportion of condom-protected sexual events during this period compared to AM nonusers, whereas those who had a recent steady partner and used alcohol, marijuana, or both substances reported a lower proportion of condom-protected sexual events compared to AM nonusers. At the most recent sexual event, participants who used both substances were four times more likely than AM nonusers to have condom-protected sex if the event involved a casual partner; however, there were no significant associations if the event involved a steady partner. Marijuana use, particularly combined with alcohol use, deserves greater attention in the context of condom use. Future research should consider different levels of analysis and partner types to fully understand these complex associations.     

Ordinal Measures of Association and Forms of Hypotheses*

This paper suggests a new way of applying “Proportional-Reductions-in-Error” related measures (i.e., Gamma, d_yx, d_xy, and Kendall's Tau's) to link logical forms of hypotheses types of ordinal measures of association. First, the basic form of associations for ordinal data are examined. Second, the analytical properties of “P-R-E” related measures are investigated. Finally, it is proposed that “P-R-E” related measures be used in testing the logical form of the relationship between variables implied in a hypothesis.     

Young and Sexual in Norway and Croatia: Revisiting the Scandinavian Versus Mediterranean Gendered Pattern of Sexual Initiation

ABSTRACT

This article describes and analyzes patterns of first sexual intercourse and contraception use from a bicultural perspective. Study results are based on a 2009–2010 large-scale national probability survey of young adults aged 18 to 24 years in Croatia (n = 1,005) and Norway (n = 871). The findings corroborated the persistence of the dual model of sexual initiation in Europe (Scandinavian vs. Mediterranean), in which Norwegian women and Croatian men reported coital debut at an earlier age than their gender counterparts. Age difference between partners and the prevalence of condom use at first coitus were similar in both countries, with differences in contraceptive choices emerging with time. Young Norwegian men and women switched from using condoms to hormonal contraception when having been coitally active for some time. Interestingly, “the pill” remains rather unpopular among young Croatian women. Controlling for selected variables, using a condom at most recent sexual intercourse was significantly associated with condom use at first intercourse in all groups except Norwegian men, as well as with years of coital activity (except among Croatian men). Additionally, the odds of a condom being used at most recent intercourse were significantly correlated with same-sex sexual experience (only among Norwegian men) and with reporting the most recent intercourse with a casual partner (only among Norwegian participants). Country-specific patterns of contraceptive use are discussed in the context of public health and prevention.     

HIV Prevention and Social Desirability: Husband–Wife Discrepancies in Reports of Condom Use

Greater use of condoms within marriage would help limit the spread of HIV in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using data from the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP), the authors examined the influence that the fidelity norm and the traditional association between marriage and reproduction have on condom use with a spouse. The sample included 749 married couples. The authors used latent class analysis to estimate a “true,” or latent measure of condom use by couples based on the individual reports of husbands and wives and to explore the reasons why individuals tend to misreport their use of condoms. They found that married couples with more children were more likely to use condoms and that having been informed by experts about AIDS prevention at home induced men and women to overreport condom use within marriage in a survey but may not necessarily increase the extent to which condoms are used.