title: The effect of alcohol on sexual risk-taking among young men and women.
abstract: The current study investigated the effects of alcohol and gender on the intentions of engaging in sexual risk-taking. Young adults (101 men, 99 women) were randomly assigned to the alcohol, placebo, or no-alcohol conditions. Participants listened to an audiotaped scenario that presented a romantic situation between a man and a woman who had just met. Participants were asked to imagine that they were one of the individuals in the scenario and then judged their intentions to engage in sexual risk-taking. Similar previous studies (e.g., Abbey, Saenz, & Buck, 2005) employing a vignette in which the couple had known each other prior to the romantic encounter found that intoxicated individuals reported a greater willingness to engage in sexual activity than those in the placebo and control groups. In contrast, the current study's results showed that intoxicated and placebo-treated women reported a greater intention of engaging in sex than sober women (b=4.92, t=2.42, p<05). Conversely, intoxicated and placebo-treated men reported less willingness to engage in sex than sober men (b=-4.66, t=-2.14, p<.05). Neither alcohol nor gender predicted participants' intention to use a condom if they chose to engage in sex. However, those who used condoms more frequently were more likely to report intending to use a condom in this scenario (b=-1.60, t=-2.17, p<.05). The results demonstrated the complex processes underlying the effects of alcohol on engaging in casual sex by revealing a gender-specific psychological effect of alcohol.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, California State University Long Beach, CA 90840-0901, USA. ycho1@csulb.edu
authors.forename: Young-Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Sherry A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Span
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D017280:Condoms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult