Range Of Sexual Behaviors Research Articles

Variations in Sexual Behaviors by Use of Specific Substances Among Vancouver Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men: An Event-Level Analysis

Event-level studies measure substance use and sexual behaviors happening during a specific sexual encounter, ensuring that both variables are temporally paired. This study explored the event-level associations between a range of sexual behaviors (masturbation, anal sex, oral sex, rimming, fisting, sex toys, and group sex) and five sexualized substances (poppers, methamphetamine, GHB, ecstasy/MDMA, and ketamine) used during 11,582 sexual events reported by 762 gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in Vancouver, Canada. Data were obtained from a prospective cohort of GBMSM who self-reported their behaviors via computer-based questionnaires on their last sexual encounter with up to five of their most recent partners in the past six months. These clustered data were analyzed with multivariable generalized linear mixed models. Participants reported popper use in 16.1% of sexual encounters, methamphetamine in 8.6%, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in 4.1%, ecstasy/3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in 3.3%, and ketamine in 1.5%. Condomless receptive anal sex (25.0% of events) was associated with increased odds of using poppers, methamphetamine, GHB, and ecstasy/MDMA. Group sex (13.1% of events) and sharing sex toys (2.0% of events) were more likely with the use of all five substances. Receiving money/drugs/goods in exchange for sex (2.5% of events) was associated with increased odds of poppers, methamphetamine, GHB, and ecstasy/MDMA use. GBMSM living with HIV (29.9% of participants) had higher odds of using poppers, methamphetamine, and GHB, but lower odds of using ecstasy/MDMA. In conclusion, these event-level results suggest public health strategies are needed to address the possible negative impacts of sexualized substance use among GBMSM.

Sexual Behavior and Substance Use in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Non-specific Associations Between a Range of Sexual Behaviors and Alcohol, Nicotine, and Marijuana Use

Sexual behaviors and substance use exhibit high rates of co-occurrence and similar patterns of age-related change, with typical initiation in middle adolescence followed by large increases in late adolescence and emerging adulthood. Because adolescent sexual behaviors are associated with negative health consequences including sexually-transmitted infections and substance use, adolescent sexual behaviors are often conceptualized within a health-risk framework. Sexual development, however, is a normative process important for healthy psychosocial adjustment, with the timing (early vs later initiation) and context (casual vs romantic partner) of sexual behaviors influencing their association with health risks. We tested whether seven common sexual behaviors could be conceptualized as markers along a continuum of sexual development (e.g., from kissing and making out to oral, vaginal, and anal sex) and then examined their associations with various measures of substance use in a sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 626; ages 13-22 years old). We found a 2-parameter logistic item response theory model provided a good fit to the prevalence and covariance among the sexual behaviors, with each behavior holding a different location on a trait representing the progression of sexual development. Each sexual behavior was associated with greater substance use even after adjusting for an early initiation of sexual behavior, current age, biological sex, and socioeconomic status. The results indicate that even normative sexual behaviors have strong and non-specific associations with substance use in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

I (Dis)Like it Like That: Gender, Pornography, and Liking Sex

Rates of pornography consumption in the U.S. are high and increasing. With exploratory aims, this study addresses the questions: What is the association between pornography consumption and liking of sexual behaviors commonly depicted in pornography, and is enjoyment moderated by gender? Sexual scripts theory suggests that increased pornography consumption is associated with increased engagement in pornographic sex acts, but it does not speak to enjoyment of the acts when engaged. The current study seeks to fill that gap. Based on data collected from a larger sample of 1,883 heterosexual men and women (predominantly, 86.6%, college or university students) in the U.S., and comparing correlations between pornography consumption (frequency of use) and reported enjoyment of a range of sexual behaviors by gender using Fisher’s z transformations (α value set at <.0025), analysis revealed that pornography consumption, overall, was not significantly correlated with increased enjoyment of the sexual acts that comprise the pornographic sexual script. However, gender was a significant moderating factor in the enjoyment, specifically, of degrading and/or uncommon acts. Male respondents were significantly more likely to report enjoying these acts than their female counterparts. These findings have possible implications for consumers, educators, and mental health professionals.

Prevalence and Determinants of Problematic Online Pornography Use in a Sample of German Women

AimTo investigate problematic online pornography use in women, an issue that has rarely been tackled to date. MethodsWe used the data from a comprehensive, cross-sectional survey of a self-referred sample of 485 German women to examine the relationships between problematic online pornography consumption and a range of sexual behaviors, trait sexual motivation, and motives for pornography use. ResultsApproximately 3% of our sample had problematic pornography use. In multivariate analysis, problematic use was significantly associated with the overall time spent viewing online pornography, greater sexual motivation, and greater emotional avoidance. Our data also indicate that the influence of sexual motivation on problematic pornography use is mediated by the amount of time spent watching online pornography. Clinical TranslationIdentifying these predictors for problematic use is important for specific prevention programs for women at risk of pathological use. Strengths & LimitationsThis study is one of the first to show that women also experience problematic online pornography use and identifies risk factors for problematic behavior. The weakness of this study is that as in all studies on sexuality, people who are interested in the topic and are comfortable talking about it are more likely to participate, thus rendering the sample nonrepresentative. ConclusionBased on our findings, approximately 3% of women experience problems associated with engaging in online pornography consumption.Baranowski AM, Vogl R, Stark R. Prevalence and Determinants of Problematic Online Pornography Use in a Sample of German Women. J Sex Med 2019;16:1274–1282.

Comparative Study of Pseudo-continuous Anal Sexual Practice among Preparatory School Youths in Dire Dawa City Administration Eastern Ethiopia

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus highly affected young peoples in developing countries, of which sexual transmission was the major route including vaginal, oral and anal sex. Understanding the full range of sexual behavior among young people especially anal sexual experience is very crucial to design appropriate intervention strategies.Objective: To assess oral and anal sexual experience and associated factors among preparatory school youths in Dire Dawa city, Eastern Ethiopia, 2016.Methods: School based cross sectional study was conducted among 1067 school youths attending preparatory schools. Systematic random sampling method was used to select study participants. Data were collected using selfadministered questionnaire and entered in to Epi-data version 3.3.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for analysis. Descriptive and bivariate logistic regression was done. Variables in bivariate analysis with P<0.25 were entered to multiple logistic regression analysis to determine predictor variables. P<0.05 was considered statistically significance and AOR with 95% CI used to assess strength of association.Results: The proportion of youths who reported having anal sex was 6.7% (66). Having multiple sexual partnerships was reported by 56.5% of youths who ever engaged in anal sex. From those who ever engaged to anal sex, 34.8% consistently used condom. Anal sex experience was significantly associated with intimate partner ever engaged to anal sex (AOR=5.34, 95% CI: 4.2-26.98), ever engaged to vaginal sex (AOR=10.64, 95% CI: 2.39-11.9), ever watching pornographic movies (AOR=3.86, 95% CI: 1.45-10.29) and parental monitoring of youth’s sexual behavior (AOR=2.63, 95% CI: 1.12-6.19).Conclusion: Significant proportion of youths had engaged in anal sexual practice and multiple sexual partners were common among youths for anal sex practices. In the contrary consistent condom use was very low. A combination of Sexual health education intervention strategies should be implemented at family, school and community level.

Sexual Health and Language Dominance Among Hispanic/Latino Women and Men: Analysis of a Nationally Representative Sample.

This study assessed the prevalence of sexual behaviors among a nationally representative sample of Latino men and women in the United States (US) (N=432) including Spanish language data collection. Prior studies of sexual health among US Latinos have consisted of convenience samples, and focused mainly on assessing risk behaviors. We consider a broader range of sexual behaviors, subjective sexual experiences (e.g. pleasure and arousal), and STI testing behaviors. Analyses by language dominance and gender indicate a higher variability in sexual behaviors for English-dominant participants and a link between overall STI testing to regular medical examinations, especially women. Higher rates of pleasure, orgasms and arousal was reported by Spanish-dominant men and women, relative to the English-dominant group. Results represent a nuanced examination of internal differentiation among US Latinos and provides applicable data for reducing sexual health disparities in this population.

Obesity and Sexuality Among Older Couples: Evidence From the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

We investigate whether obesity is associated with sexual activity, sexual frequency, and the range of sexual behaviors in heterosexual older couples. We assess to what extent associations between obesity and sexuality are explained by physical, psychological, and sexual health, and by relationship quality. We use data from 1,698 older adults in 849 partnered dyads in the 2010-2011 wave of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project and conduct couple-level analysis featuring women's and men's characteristics. Women's obesity-particularly at severe levels-is negatively associated with coupled sexual activity, but the association is not mediated by hypothesized mediators. Men's obesity did not have any association with sexual activity. There was no significant difference between overweight and normal weight adults across all three sexuality measures. The growing number of older adults with high levels of body mass index, particularly women, may face certain difficulties in maintaining active sexual lives.

Sexual Behaviors of U.S. Men by Self-Identified Sexual Orientation: Results From the 2012 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior

Although a large body of previous research has examined sexual behavior and its relation to risk in men of diverse sexual identities, most studies have relied on convenience sampling. As such, the vast majority of research on the sexual behaviors of gay and bisexual men, in particular, might not be generalizable to the general population of these men in the United States. This is of particular concern because many studies are based on samples of men recruited from relatively "high-risk" venues and environments. To provide nationally representative baseline rates for sexual behavior in heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men in the United States and compare findings on sexual behaviors, relationships, and other variables across subgroups. Data were obtained from the 2012 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, which involved the administration of an online questionnaire to a nationally representative probability sample of women and men at least 18 years old in the United States, with oversampling of self-identified gay and bisexual men and women. Results from the male participants are included in this article. Measurements include demographic characteristics, particularly sexual identity, and their relations to diverse sexual behaviors, including masturbation, mutual masturbation, oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex. Behaviors with male and female partners were examined. Men of all self-identified sexual identities reported engaging in a range of sexual behaviors (solo and partnered). As in previous studies, sexual identity was not always congruent for gender of lifetime and recent sexual partners. Patterns of sexual behaviors and relationships vary among heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men. Several demographic characteristics, including age, were related to men's sexual behaviors. The results from this probability study highlight the diversity in men's sexual behaviors across sexual identities, and these data allow generalizability to the broader population of gay and bisexual men, in particular, in the United States, which is a major advancement in research focused on individuals in a sexual minority.

Bad Girls: Young Women, Sex, and Rebellion before the Sixties by Amanda H. Littauer

Reviewed by: Bad Girls: Young Women, Sex, and Rebellion before the Sixties by Amanda H. Littauer Nadine Boulay Amanda H. Littauer, Bad Girls: Young Women, Sex, and Rebellion before the Sixties (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 2015) At a glance, when considering pre-1960s notions or representations of sexuality in US culture, “sexual nonconformity” and rebellion would typically be unlikely terms applied to the wartime and the Cold War era. These decades may indeed conjure up popular images of long-limbed white pin up girls and Hollywood glamour, but the prevailing discourses, messages, and morals that circulated around women’s sexuality are often recalled as conservative, revolving around the institution of heterosexual marriage and the (white) nuclear family as a microcosm of the nation. While revolutionary fervour, changing sexual mores, and increased visible articulations of female sexual agency are ordinarily associated with the proceeding decades, during the 1940s and 1950s many teen girls and women participated in a range of sexual behaviours and practices that flouted normative expectations of feminized sexuality. As Amanda Littauer contends in Bad Girls, World War II “left a legacy of young female sexual self-assertion that would generate both conservative and liberal responses in the postwar years,” galvanizing calls for women’s sexual agency, and influencing the sexual cultures of the 1960s and 1970s. (19) While scholars have highlighted the more liberal facets of the 1940s and 1950s, very little of this scholarship examines the experiences, thoughts, and experiences of sexual agency of women and girls. Beginning in the 1970s, feminist and queer historians have worked to make visible how the wartime home front generated new opportunities for heterosexual women, gay men, and lesbians to claim sexual and economic agency in ways that were unprecedented. Postwar America was a period of paradox concerning sexuality; these decades may have been rife with restriction, but also of vocal debate, giving rise to the Homophile and Civil Rights movements, prompting challenges to racial segregation, and seeing the publication of the Kinsey reports. There was also a heightened sense of panic about the sexual morality of women and girls, fears surrounding the spread of venereal diseases and miscegenation, and efforts to surveil and contain these “threats.” Considering that heightened restrictions so often suggest greater contestation, Bad Girls refutes the notion that practices of pre-1960s sexual nonconformity were temporary, but rather recognizes these practices as part of “the long sexual revolution,” and refuses to cordon off women and girls articulation of sexual agency to the 1960s and 1970s. (2) The task of locating and making visible the experiences and agency of women and their sexuality in this historical moment is no easy task. Considering that “the thoughts of most women and girls [End Page 368] are lost to history” – particularly when historians rightly attend to intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and class – feminist historians have to be methodologically and theoretically creative. (82) Littauer presents an “omnivorous approach” in her text, tracking the relationships between prevailing ideologies and representations, working with and extrapolating from a myriad of sources, including: state and federal contact reports that attempted to track women who were named by servicemen as possible sources of venereal diseases; policy makers and law enforcement agents who used their power and authority in forms of social control; social scientific studies that sought to observe and understand postwar sexual cultures; and, when possible, the testimonies of women and girls themselves. (11) Littauer infers evidence of female sexual agency and practices through the sites of contact that women often had with institutions of authority, such as through the documents (“contact reports”) left by government officials who sought to limit the interactions between servicemen and civilian women, many of whom were seen as infringing on social spaces typically reserved for men. Well aware that wartime had altered the sexual landscape, Littauer argues that officials and the public alike feared that what they saw as an encroaching tide of sexual liberalism would erode the institution of marriage and increase occurrences of “juvenile delinquency.” (21) These anxieties were largely focused on the bodies of women and girls; from figures like Victory Girls and B-Girls of the 1940s and 1950s – who were...

Relationships of parental monitoring and emotion regulation with early adolescents' sexual behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating influence of parental monitoring (e.g., unsupervised time with opposite sex peers) and adolescent emotional competence on sexual behaviors, among a sample of at-risk early adolescents. This study included 376 seventh-grade adolescents (age, 12-14 years) with behavioral or emotional difficulties. Questionnaires were completed on private laptop computers and assessed adolescent Emotional Competence (including Regulation and Negativity/Lability), Unsupervised Time, and a range of Sexual Behaviors. Generalized linear models were used to evaluate the independent and combined influence of Emotional Competency and Unsupervised Time on adolescent report of Sexual Behaviors. Analyses were stratified by gender to account for the notable gender differences in the targeted moderators and outcome variables. Findings indicated that more unsupervised time was a risk factor for all youth but was influenced by an adolescent's ability to regulate their emotions. Specifically, for males and females, poorer Emotion Regulation was associated with having engaged in a greater variety of Sexual Behaviors. However, lower Negativity/Lability and >1× per week Unsupervised Time were associated with a higher number of sexual behaviors among females only. Based on the findings of this study, a lack of parental supervision seems to be particularly problematic for both male and female adolescents with poor emotion regulation abilities. It may be important to impact both emotion regulation abilities and increase parental knowledge and skills associated with effective monitoring to reduce risk-taking for these youth.

Comparing male escorts' sexual behaviour with their last male client versus non-commercial male partner

Apart from research suggesting that male escorts are less likely to have condomless anal sex (CAS) with their male clients compared with male non-clients, little is known about how male escorts' behaviour differs between their clients and non-clients. In spring 2013, 387 Internet-based male escorts completed an online survey that included identical questions about their sexual behaviour with their last male client and male non-client. Encounters with non-commercial partners were significantly more likely to involve a greater range of sexual behaviours, including giving oral sex to partner, kissing, anal receptive sex and sex without condoms. These findings suggest that escorts may display a greater sexual repertoire with non-commercial partners compared to their clients. Encounters with non-commercial partners were also rated as more satisfying than with clients. Condomless anal sex was less common with clients, suggesting that escorts and clients may take active roles in mitigating risks for HIV and STI transmission with each other. Although the modal response for CAS was to abstain, more than half of participants reported CAS during at least one of the two encounters assessed. Behavioural and/or biomedical HIV-prevention strategies would be appropriate for some male escorts to reduce HIV transmission risk.

Hooking up in the Twenty-First Century

This study presents an exploratory analysis of the meaning of “hooking up” based on 1) academic literature, and 2) the perspective of college students from differing backgrounds. The authors investigated definitions of hooking up based on scholarly articles derived from search engine results and then from college students’ responses to an open-ended question on an online survey (N=358). Coding was used to identify themes that emerged from the data with the goal of understanding what the phrase means and whether the research is in line with students’ perspectives. Additionally, the authors sought to examine whether differences exist based on demographic variables. The findings revealed that the phrase “hooking up” predominantly represents sexual behavior ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse in the research base, but has been more narrowly constructed among college students. Gender differences also emerged, with males being more likely than females to view hooking up as involving sex rather than a broader range of sexual behaviors. A discussion follows and highlights directions for future research.

Group sex, sex change, and parasitic males: sexual strategies among the fishes and their neurobiological correlates.

Sexual selection, in the form of intrasexual competition and mate choice, has driven the evolution of a variety of sexual phenotypes amongst the vertebrates (Andersson, 1994). As a result, vertebrate species utilize many different approaches to acquire fertilizations. Humans and other primates show a wide range of sexual behaviors, but this range is dwarfed by the remarkable variation seen in advanced fishes. The goals of this review are (a) to acquaint the reader with the tremendous sexual diversity exhibited by fishes, (b) to demonstrate how this diversity provides unique opportunities to examine the neurobiological correlates of vertebrate sexual strategies, and (c) to highlight the parallels between the neuroendocrine correlates of the sexual strategies of fish with the mechanisms underlying sexual phenotypes in other vertebrates, showing the utility of fish studies for understanding sexual variation in general.

The feasibility of cell phone based electronic diaries for STI/HIV research

BackgroundSelf-reports of sensitive, socially stigmatized or illegal behavior are common in STI/HIV research, but can raise challenges in terms of data reliability and validity. The use of electronic data collection tools, including ecological momentary assessment (EMA), can increase the accuracy of this information by allowing a participant to self-administer a survey or diary entry, in their own environment, as close to the occurrence of the behavior as possible. In this paper, we evaluate the feasibility of using cell phone-based EMA as a tool for understanding sexual risk and STI among adult men and women.MethodsAs part of a larger prospective clinical study on sexual risk behavior and incident STI in clinically recruited adult men and women, using study-provided cell phones, participants (N = 243) completed thrice–daily EMA diaries monitoring individual and partner-specific emotional attributes, non-sexual activities, non-coital or coital sexual behaviors, and contraceptive behaviors. Using these data, we assess feasibility in terms of participant compliance, behavior reactivity, general method acceptability and method efficacy for capturing behaviors.ResultsParticipants were highly compliant with diary entry protocol and schedule: over the entire 12 study weeks, participants submitted 89.7% (54,914/61,236) of the expected diary entries, with an average of 18.86 of the 21 expected diaries (85.7%) each week. Submission did not differ substantially across gender, race/ethnicity and baseline sexually transmitted infection status. A sufficient volume and range of sexual behaviors were captured, with reporting trends in different legal and illegal behaviors showing small variation over time. Participants found the methodology to be acceptable, enjoyed and felt comfortable participating in the study.ConclusionAchieving the correct medium of data collection can drastically improve, or degrade, the timeliness and quality of an individual’s self-reported sexual risk behavior, which in turn, is a key factor in the success of intervention or education programs relying on this information. Our findings demonstrate that completion of electronic diaries via cellular phone is feasible way to describe STI/HIV risk among clinically recruited adult men and women.

Returns to Education in Russia: Where There Is Risky Sexual Behaviour There Is Also an Instrument

Finding an instrument that is orthogonal to the disturbance term in the wage equation has been a topic of great deal of debate. Recently, Chesson et al. (2006) proposed that higher discount rates are significantly associated with a range of sexual behaviours, including having sex before age of 16 years. Following their paper, we use unprotected sexual behaviour and earlier age of sexual intercourse as alternative instrumental variables to account for endogeneity in schooling. The Bound et al. (1995) F-test indicates that our instruments are strongly correlated with schooling. We fail to reject the test of over-identifying restrictions, which demonstrates that the proposed instruments are valid and not correlated with the current earnings. In line with previous studies, our results suggest that the IV estimates of the returns to schooling are higher than the OLS estimates. In addition to the conditional mean, the proposed instruments are applied over the wage distribution using Chernozhukov and Hansen (2008) instrumental variable quantile approach.

Factors Associated with Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Among Men Who Utilize an Internet-Based Men Who Have Sex with Men Community

Public health messaging encourages men who have sex with men (MSM) to be tested for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV at least yearly, and more frequently depending on sexual behaviors. However, despite engaging in a range of sexual behaviors, many MSM do not participate in regular STI testing. The objective of this study was to understand factors associated with STI testing among a nonclinic-based population of men accessing an Internet-based social and sexual networking site. We asked 25,736 men to complete a comprehensive behavioral and health assessment after being recruited from an Internet site popular among men seeking social or sexual interactions with other men. Analyses were performed using multivariate logistic regression with effects significant at p < 0.05. Two separate predictive models were assessed: STI diagnosis within the past 2 years and STI testing within the past year. Regarding previous STI diagnosis, men who used a condom some of the time or never during both insertive (odds ratio [OR] = 1.72) and receptive (OR = 1.41) anal sex were significantly more likely to have had an STI in the past 2 years. For STI testing, men who never used condoms during receptive anal sex were more likely to have had an STI test within the past year (OR = 1.31), but men who had a STI history were less likely to have been tested (O = 0.24). Public health efforts directed toward MSM should continue to emphasize screening for STI other than HIV, particularly among those men prioritized during condom promotion campaigns. In addition to the benefits of learning one's STI status, the STI screening and treatment environment itself may provide an important venue for encouraging a range of sexual health promoting behaviors.

The influence of parental monitoring and communication on adolescents sexual behavior and intentions

This study examined the influence of parental monitoring and communication on behavior and behavioral intentions for a broad range of sexual behavior among early adolescents. The participants (ages 11–16) reported on the sexual behaviors they had engaged in (from holding hands to vaginal sex) and their intentions to engage in these behaviors in the next 12 months. The results were different for males versus females. For males, parental monitoring was more likely to be associated with behavior. For females, parental monitoring was more likely to be associated with behavioral intentions. Parental communication was not associated with any of the behaviors for males and only associated with behavioral intentions for French kissing among females. Across both males and females past behavior was a significant predictor of behavioral intentions. The importance of sexual risk interventions that take into consideration a broad range of sexual behaviors is discussed in this article.

Early Sexual Behavior in a Sample of Low-Income, African American Children

This study describes the sexual behavior of 2- to 12-year-old African American children without known histories of sexual abuse and explores the relation of this behavior to gender and age. Primary caregivers were recruited from a public “Well Child” clinic and administered the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI), a parental report measure that assesses a broad range of childhood sexual behaviors within 9 specific domains. CSBI data were collected on 249 African American children. Results indicate that African American children display a broad range of sexual behavior that was not reported to frequently occur. Sexual behaviors that involved requesting, planning, or forcing other children and adults into sexual activity were not reported. Although significant differences were not found between frequency levels of sexual behavior reported for boys and girls, the range of sexual behavior observed and reported for girls was narrower in comparison to boys. Significant differences were found between frequency levels of sexual behavior observed and reported for children of different ages. Analysis of the behavioral differences found between children of different ages indicates the emergence of a marked interest in sexuality as African American children approached puberty.

Childhood sexual experience and adult offending: an exploratory comparison of three criminal groups

AbstractThe study explored the links between adult offending and exploitative sexual experiences during childhood. A questionnaire was administered to three criminal groups (child molesters, rapists and non‐sexual offenders) with the aim of investigating the statistical relationships between the men's early childhood sexual experiences. The sample comprised a total of 125 males. Fifty‐eight were in prison for non‐sexual crimes, 23 were serving sentences for rape and the remaining 44 were undergoing therapeutic treatment for their child molestation crime at a special treatment programme within the prison. Significant differences were found across the groups with respect to family context: education, subsequent occupation, religious family background and levels of abuse experienced during childhood. The two sex offending groups reported higher levels of physical and sexual abuse. The rapists reported significantly higher levels of emotional abuse and neglect. The child molester group was more likely to report both consenting and non‐consenting activity with other children and there was significance across the range of sexual behaviours. Higher abuse reporting by the child molester and rapist groups suggests that early experience may influence developmental trajectories and offending pathways. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Adolescent human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted disease prevention programmes: are gender-blind approaches justified?

To present findings that gender might be more predictive of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted disease (STD) knowledge, and sexual behaviour, compared with participation in knowledge-based HIV prevention programmes. A cross-sectional study comparing students attending public high schools running an HIV and STD prevention programme. It is based on a study that evaluated the City of Houston HIV and STD prevention programme in public high schools. Comparison was initially between groups (intervention vs comparison) and subsequently between gender. The main variables for comparison were level of interest and knowledge of the subject of HIV and STD, and a range of sexual behaviour variables. Self-administered questionnaires were used for eliciting both knowledge and behavioural data. A specific question required participants to rate their level of interest in the subject of HIV and STD on a scale of 1-4 (lowest to highest). The knowledge component was marked and scores awarded in percentage form. Descriptive statistical analysis was followed by stratified analysis. Finally, a select number of variables were used in a logistic regression model. STATA version 8 was the main statistical software. A significantly large proportion of girls reported the highest level of interest in the subject of HIV and STD (a score of 4); had higher HIV and STD knowledge scores; and reported less risk-taking sexual behaviour compared with boys. The only variable in which boys faired better was condom use, reporting higher rates of condom use than girls. Gender-blind HIV and STD prevention programmes seem to have a minimal effect on boys. Although a myriad of other factors influence male response to such programmes, the relatively low level of interest in the subject of HIV and STD among boys might be contributory. HIV and STD prevention programmes need to be re-designed using approaches that are more appealing to boys. Boys will otherwise remain the weak link and therefore the rate-limiting step in the quest for sexual behaviour change among adolescents.