Making out, going all the way, or risking it: Identifying individual, event, and partner-level predictors of non-penetrative, protected penetrative, and unprotected penetrative hookups

Abstract

Hookups, i.e., short-term sexual encounters with no expectations of relational commitment, are commonplace in American college campuses. Even though a substantial number of students engage in hookups involving non-penetrative sexual acts such as kissing and genital touching, scholarly attention has been skewed toward those students who engage in riskier sexual behaviors such as protected and unprotected sexual intercourse during hookups. The present study addresses this gap by identifying individual-, event-, and hookup partner-level factors that distinguish students who engage in non-penetrative, protected penetrative, and unprotected penetrative hookups. 318 college students who had at least one hook up experience in their lives were recruited for this study. 131 students reported their most recent hookup being non-penetrative in nature, while 129 reported having protected penetrative sex, and 58 had unprotected penetrative sex. Results showed that dating anxiety increased the odds of engaging in non-penetrative hookups while sexual permissiveness, number of sexual partners, sexual attraction toward hookup partners, and sexting hookup partners increased the odds of protected penetrative hookups. Homosexual students and students who watched porn more frequently were most likely to engage in unprotected penetrative hookups. Implications of these results on college policies regarding student health are discussed.