Abstract
In the United States, considerable attention has been directed to sexual behaviors of black and white adolescents, particularly age at first sexual experience and the prevalence of teenage pregnancies. More limited attention has been paid to comparing established sexual relationships in these two racial groups. In this study, we used a national probability sample to compare black (n = 251) and white (n = 544) American women, aged 20–65 years, who were in an established heterosexual relationship of at least 6 months duration. We focused on two aspects of their sexual well-being; how a woman evaluated (1) her sexual relationship and (2) her own sexuality. A range of possible determinants of sexual well-being, including demographic factors, physical and mental health, and aspects of the women’s recent sexual experiences, were also assessed using Telephone-Audio-Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (T-ACASI). We found no significant difference between black and white women in their evaluation of their sexual relationships nor in the independent variables that were correlated with this evaluation. Black women, however, evaluated their own sexuality more positively than white women. In examining the correlates of this evaluation, a woman’s rating of her own sexual attractiveness proved to be the strongest predictor, with black women rating themselves significantly more sexually attractive than did the white women. Overall, these findings were consistent with previous findings that, compared to white women, black women in the United States have higher self-esteem and tend towards more independence and individualism.
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Notes
Software was not available to compute the polychoric correlation using survey weights. The Pearson correlation using the survey weights was .75.
In logit models for ordinal and binary outcomes it is misleading to compare the magnitudes of regression coefficients or odds ratios across nested models since these coefficients reflect both the magnitude of the effect and arbitrary identification constraints (Winship & Mare, 1984). Accordingly, our assessments of the effect of race across nested models are based on comparisons across models of race differences in predicted probabilities of the outcome at specific values of the independent variables.
Recall that our model includes a dummy variable indicating that the participant did not have sex and a variable indicating the square root of the number of sex acts. The dummy variable allows us to evaluate what could be an important difference between not having sex and having even one sexual experience during the reporting period.
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Acknowledgments
This study was made possible by a grant from the Lilly/ICOS Joint Venture. We are grateful to Dr. Jeni Loftus for her work on an earlier version of this article.
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Bancroft, J., Long, J.S. & McCabe, J. Sexual Well-Being: A Comparison of U.S. Black and White Women in Heterosexual Relationships. Arch Sex Behav 40, 725–740 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9679-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9679-z