title: Condom use: the discrepancy between practice and behavioral expectations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The overall aim of this paper is to examine sexually active young people's behavioral expectations of condom use.
  
  
  METHODS
  We collected data at nine youth clinics and one sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic in Sweden. We included participants whom had been sexually active during the past 12 months: A total of 1022 participants between the ages of 15 and 31 were included. We analyzed the data separately, for different types of sexual practices and types of sexual partners. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze age and gender differences for discrepancies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The behavioral expectation of condom use differed, depending on the type of sexual practice and the type of partner. For all types of sex, the overall pattern showed that the participants were most likely to use a condom with a casual unknown partner, followed by a casual known partner, regular partner and lastly, a main partner. Our results also demonstrated that there is a discrepancy between the behavioral expectation of condom use and the self-reported condom use. The lowest discrepancy was for oral sex, especially with a main partner, and the largest discrepancy was for anal sex and vaginal sex with a casual partner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results imply that the participants had a greater expectation of condom use than actually occurs, especially for casual unknown partners. There is a lack of knowledge about the risks associated with oral sex, which is evident in the results of the participants' behavioral expectations of condom use under those conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden veronika.fridlund@sociology.su.se.
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fridlund
authors.affiliation: Section of Social Medicine, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stenqvist
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Monica K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Nordvik
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017280:Condoms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners; D013548:Sweden; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Behavioral expectations; Sweden; condom use; disease prevention; sexual behavior; sexual practices; sexual relationships; sexually transmitted disease; youth