Abstract
This study examined longitudinal changes in condom use inconsistency and sexual encounters involving alcohol use and the within-person associations of these two risky sexual behaviors with other personal and contextual factors. Data were drawn from a sample of college students who completed surveys on four occasions across 3 years and included 317 participants (48 % male; 32 % African American, 28 % Latino American, and 40 % European American) who reported recent penetrative sexual activities on at least one of the occasions. Multilevel models revealed that, although condom use inconsistency increased and then leveled off over time, sexual encounters involving alcohol use showed a linear increase. Moreover, at times when students held more negative attitudes toward condoms than usual, they used condoms less consistently than usual; at times when students felt more anxious about HIV/AIDS than usual, they had more sexual encounters involving alcohol use than usual; and at times when students were involved in a serious relationship, they used condoms less consistently and had fewer sexual encounters involving alcohol use than usual. Findings demonstrate the utility of a developmental perspective in understanding sexual behaviors, the importance of examining the unique correlates of different risky sexual behaviors, and the distinctiveness between within-person versus between-person associations.
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Notes
To probe whether sexual encounters involving alcohol use would be better modeled using a non-linear approach, we also analyzed the data using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS, specifying a log link function and Poisson-distributed residuals. Results based on the MIXED and GLIMMIX procedures were inferentially equivalent. For reasons of simplicity, both the two risky sexual behaviors were analyzed using the MIXED procedure.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Eva S. Lefkowitz (R01-HD41720). We would like to thank Sandra Abarca, Jill Boelter, Lauren Dietz, Jennifer Fang, Graciela Espinosa-Hernandez, Meghan Gillen, Shelley Hosterman, McKenzie Jones, Emily Killoren, Casey O’Neil, Annie Pezella, Cindy Shearer, and Tara Stoppa for their help in data collection and management.
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Appendix
Appendix
Equations for Multilevel Models of Risky Sexual Behaviors
Level 1 equation.
Level 2 equations.
Note. WP = within-person; BP = between-person. Residual terms are absent for variables treated as fixed. Subscript i indicates occasions within individual j, and j indicates individuals.
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Lam, C.B., Lefkowitz, E.S. Risky Sexual Behaviors in Emerging Adults: Longitudinal Changes and Within-Person Variations. Arch Sex Behav 42, 523–532 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9959-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9959-x