A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Peer Communications of Sexual Scripts and Emerging Adults’ Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors.

Sexual Socialization;Psychology;Social Sciences;Psychology

Trinh, Sarah LamCortina, Kai Schnabel ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Sexual Socialization;    Psychology;    Social Sciences;    Psychology;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/108859/sltrinh_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation sought to examine peer sexual communications and to identify whether such communications entail expectations that differ by gender. Unlike men, women who are sexually assertive, experienced, and unabashedly enjoy sex are typically perceived as promiscuous, immoral, and troubled. Is there still support for this sexual double standard? To answer this question, the current studies were designed to explore the messages that peers convey to young people and to identify associations between these messages and college students’ sexual beliefs and behaviors. The studies were conducted at a public university in the Midwest. College students completed surveys assessing sexual communications, motivations, attitudes, and experiences. The dissertation consisted of three studies, each with distinct goals: 1) to identify whether patterns of sexual communications varied by recipient gender and peer gender and contributed to sexual attitudes and experience level, 2) to describe the nuances within sexual messages targeted to undergraduate women, and 3) to discern the directionality and associations among peer communications, sexual motivations, and behaviors. Each study also used different methods, including mixed models, thematic analysis, and structural equation modeling.Findings demonstrate that what emerging adults say and who they convey these messages to are gendered. Emerging adults reported receiving more messages about sex and relationships from their same-sex peers than their other-sex peers. Yet, communications from other-sex peers were more often linked to college students’ sexual attitudes and experiences. For example, female peers’ communications of the Heterosexual Script and the hookup script each predicted more sexual experience and higher levels of endorsement of masculine ideology among young men. For undergraduate women, messages about sex and relationships frequently signaled a lack of unqualified support for women’s sexual agency. Unsurprisingly, undergraduate women reported greater consideration of reputational consequences than their own feelings and desires when making sexual decisions. This preoccupation with reputational consequences was not associated with sexual assertiveness. Implications for sexual health and agency were discussed.