Effects of relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and alcohol on women's risky sexual decision making.
This experiment examined the effects of women's relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and alcohol consumption on sexual decision making. Women completed an individual difference measure of relationship motivation and then were randomly assigned to partner familiarity condition (low, high) and to alcohol consumption condition (high dose, low dose, no alcohol, placebo). Then women read and projected themselves into a scenario of a sexual encounter. Relationship motivation and partner familiarity interacted with intoxication to influence primary appraisals of relationship potential. Participants' primary and secondary relationship appraisals mediated the effects of women's relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and intoxication on condom negotiation, sexual decision abdication, and unprotected sex intentions. These findings support a cognitive mediation model of women's sexual decision making and identify how individual and situational factors interact to shape alcohol's influences on cognitive appraisals that lead to risky sexual decisions. This knowledge can inform empirically based risky sex interventions.
Zawacki
Tina
T
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78210, USA. tina.zawacki@utsa.edu
Norris
Jeanette
J
Hessler
Danielle M
DM
Morrison
Diane M
DM
Stoner
Susan A
SA
George
William H
WH
Davis
Kelly Cue
KC
Abdallah
Devon A
DA