How Much Do We Really Know About Sociosexuality in Ghana?

Abstract

Sociosexuality describes a person’s willingness and preparedness to engage in uncommitted sexual activity with various sexual partners. Sociosexuality has important implications for sexual health and HIV prevention because it mostly involves willingness to engage in casual sex. Yet to date, there are no prior studies on sociosexuality and its correlates in Ghana. To fill this gap, this study explored the association between sociosexuality (attitude, desire, and behaviour), gender, sexual sensation seeking, sexual attitudes, and religiosity in romantic relationships among participants (N = 315; men = 164, women = 151) from Ayawaso West Wuogon municipality in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Data were analysed using Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Results showed that, compared with women, men reported higher unrestricted sociosexuality. Further, sexual sensation seeking and sexual attitudes were positively associated with sociosexuality. However, personal religiosity was not associated with sociosexuality. Sexual attitudes interacted with sexual sensation seeking in influencing sociosexuality. Our results suggest that some Ghanaian men seem to view uncommitted sex as an appropriate sexual behaviour, consistent with prevailing masculine sexual script norms. The findings indicate that sexual risk reduction programmes in Ghana should target sociosexuality and sexual sensation seeking.