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A Cognitive Analysis of College Students’ Explanations for Engaging in Unprotected Sexual Intercourse

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Abstract

Young adults, including college students, engage in high levels of unprotected sexual activity despite relatively high rates of HIV/STI and pregnancy-related knowledge. Little is known about the cognitive strategies that young people use to explain this inconsistency. The current study examined young people’s explanations for engaging in unprotected sexual activity in their committed relationships. A total of 63 young adults (32 women and 31 men) completed daily diaries over a 3-week period, providing a total of 1,284 daily reports tracking their condom use and non-use during intercourse. Diary collection was followed by in-depth interviews designed to explore participants’ decision-making regarding their participation in sexual intercourse unprotected against infection or unwanted pregnancy. Less than a quarter of the sample used condoms or oral contraceptives consistently. Participants primarily viewed condoms as a means of preventing pregnancy; few described disease prevention as a main motivation for their use. Analysis of the cognitions underlying explanations for condom and contraception non-use were classified as (1) general biased risk evaluation, (2) biased evidence evaluation, (3) endorsement of poor alternatives, (4) focus on spurious justifications, (5) dismissing risk, and (6) ignoring risk. Prevention interventions should incorporate methods to challenge young people to acknowledge personal risk and commit themselves to taking steps to reduce this risk.

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Notes

  1. These interviews revealed that two of these participants did use condoms consistently, but put condoms on after engaging in a few minutes of unprotected intercourse (thus reporting both protected and unprotected intercourse for each sexual occasion in their diary data). The third participant insisted that his non-use on the one occasion was highly unusual, a one-time occasion, and would offer no further explanation. Thus, their data could not be included in the following analyses.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge research support from NICHD Grant R01-HD41721 to Lucia F. O’Sullivan, Ph.D. The authors thank the students for their participation in the project and Giovanna Rodriguez for coordinating data collection and entry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 4400, Fredericton, NB, E3B 3A1, Canada

    Lucia F. O’Sullivan

  2. Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, WA, USA

    Wadiya Udell

  3. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Vernique A. Montrose

  4. Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Patricia Antoniello

  5. HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Susie Hoffman

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  1. Lucia F. O’Sullivan
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  2. Wadiya Udell
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  3. Vernique A. Montrose
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  4. Patricia Antoniello
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  5. Susie Hoffman
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Correspondence to Lucia F. O’Sullivan.

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O’Sullivan, L.F., Udell, W., Montrose, V.A. et al. A Cognitive Analysis of College Students’ Explanations for Engaging in Unprotected Sexual Intercourse. Arch Sex Behav 39, 1121–1131 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-009-9493-7

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