Respondents' Understanding of the Words Used in Sexual Behavior Questions

Abstract

The authors assessed the difficulty respondents have in understanding the vocabulary used in sexual behavior questions. They embedded several questions related to respondents' self-reported difficulty in understanding the terms vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse in a telephone survey of the general population (National AIDS Behavioral Survey II, N = 4,790). Most respondents (95 percent) reported that these terms were easy to understand. However, men were more likely than women to report difficulty, and minority respondents were more likely than white respondents to indicate that vaginal intercourse and anal intercourse were difficult to understand. Most striking was the finding that 25 percent of those with less than 12 years of education reported comprehension difficulty with these terms. In addition, in the High Risk Cities (HRC) sample, respondents who found the terms difficult to understand were more likely to report zero when asked the number of people they had vaginal or anal intercourse with. This has implications for STD/HIV prevention policy in that some demographic groups may appear less sexually active than they really are. Hence, they may be ignored as likely candidates for intervention programs. More research is needed to assess the various dimensions to this problem. Especially needed are ways to facilitate understanding of these basic sexual behavior terms for those with low levels of education