Adolescent Women’s Sexual Self-Efficacy: Associations with Personal and Perceived Partner Beliefs That Condoms Interfere with Pleasure

Abstract

Sexual self-efficacy, an individual’s confidence in the domain of sexual health behaviors, was studied among an ethnically diverse sample of 128 sexually active adolescent women between the ages of 14 and 18 years. A hypothesized interaction between women’s belief that condoms interfere with sexual pleasure and her perception of a partner’s belief that condoms interfere with sexual pleasure was not supported. Both adolescent women’s belief that condoms interfere with pleasure and their perception that their partner believed condoms interfere with pleasure were separately associated with lower self-efficacy to refuse sex without condoms and use condoms. Both a partner’s and one’s own sexual pleasure may be important determinants of adolescent women’s confidence to engage in health protective sexual behaviors. Adolescents’ self-efficacy to experience pleasure when using condoms should be enhanced.