Recent Intercourse Research Articles

Heterosocial anxiety and contraceptive behavior

In this study three hypotheses regarding the role of heterosocial anxiety in contraceptive behavior were evaluated. It was hypothesized that heterosocial anxiety would be inversely related to (a) willingness to initiate discussion about birth control, (b) the effectiveness of each partner's communication about birth control matters, and (c) use of more effective contraceptive methods. These hypotheses were assessed in a sample of college women for both their first experiences of intercourse and for their recent sexual experiences with subsequent partners. Tests of the incremental effects of two heterosocial anxiety factors when controlling for several covariates showed the following results. For a woman's first intercourse experience, general heterosocial anxiety was inversely correlated to when birth control was discussed, male partner's communication effectiveness, and use of more effective contraceptive methods. For recent intercourse experiences, general heterosocial anxiety was inversely correlated to who initiated discussion about birth control and male partner's communication effectiveness, while contraceptive task anxiety was inversely correlated to use of more effective contraceptive methods in a couple's subsequent sexual relations but not their initial sexual encounter. Results are discussed relative to the social anxiety literature and for limitations that restrict conclusions about the degree of influence that social anxiety may exert on contraceptive behavior.

Penile glycogenated epithelial cells as an indicator of recent vaginal intercourse.

Occasionally, suspected male rape assailants are examined, in part to recover evidence of recent sexual intercourse. Glycogenated squamous epithelial cells are felt to be specific for the vagina, and if recovered from the penis, they are indicative of penile vaginal penetration. From the 45 periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) stained postcoital penile smears examined, 36 (81%) contained PAS-positive cells. Precoital penile smears were all negative. Both precoital and postcoital urethral meatus smears contained many PAS-positive cells. The authors conclude that recovery of PAS-positive cells from the penile shaft is strong presumptive, but not definitive, evidence of recent vaginal intercourse.

Social and Environmental Factors Influencing Contraceptive Use Among Black Adolescents

In 1979 survey among sexually active unmarried black adolescents from Chicago found that 28 percent of the young women and 18 percent of the young men used a contraceptive at first intercourse. Statistically significant differences in such contraceptive use among teenage women were found for three social and environmental characteristics: social class, parents' marital status and neighborhood quality. Thus, 41 percent of the young women from the highest social class used contraceptives at first intercourse, but only 17 percent of those from the lowest class did so. The proportions were 35 percent for young women from neighborhoods of high socioeconomic status and 17 percent for those from ghetto neighborhoods. Thirty-six percent of teenage women whose parents had intact marriages as of the adolescent's 11th birthday used contraceptives at first intercourse, compared with 23 percent of those from single-parent and divorced families. Among males, social class was the only one of these three characteristics that was statistically significant; 32 percent of adolescents from the highest class and 11 percent from the lowest practiced contraception at first intercourse. For teenagers of both sexes, career aspirations were of marginal statistical significance in the practice of contraception. Thirty-six percent of young women with high aspirations used contraceptives at first intercourse and 19 percent of those with low aspirations did so. Only four percent of the young men with low career aspirations used contraceptives, compared with 25 percent of those with high aspirations. Number of siblings, parental supervision of dating and having a sister who had become a teenage mother showed no association with contraceptive use.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy and Fertility Patterns Among Single American Women in Their 20s

Eighty-two percent of never-married American women aged 20-29 have had sexual intercourse; black women are somewhat more likely than white women to have had intercourse. In all, 53 percent of never-married women in this age-group had intercourse at least once in the four weeks preceding the 1983 National Survey of Unmarried Women. Black women are more likely than white women to have done so (62 percent compared with 51 percent). Nearly all of the women who ever had intercourse have used a contraceptive method at some time; 78 percent practiced contraception at the time of their most recent intercourse. A high proportion did not start using birth control until some time after first intercourse, however: On average, the delay between first coitus and first contraceptive use was eight months, and one-fifth of the respondents said that they began using a method only after their first pregnancy. Most of the women who did use a method at the time of first intercourse relied on the condom or withdrawal; in contrast, about two-thirds of white women and three-quarters of black women now rely on the pill, IUD or sterilization. Eighty-six percent of the women who had intercourse in the four weeks before the interview were current users--88 percent of the white women and 77 percent of the black women. Catholic women are no less likely than others to have ever had intercourse, to be currently sexually active or to be using contraceptives. However, Catholic women who receive communion at least once a week are less likely to be sexually active and substantially less likely to use medical contraceptive methods. Women who consider themselves very religious are less likely to be sexually active, but the sexually active among them are about as likely as others to use contraceptives. Better-educated women are much more likely than less-educated women to practice contraception, and women who work outside of the home are more likely than those who do not to use contraceptives. Thirty-three percent of unmarried 20-29-year-olds have had at least one pregnancy (about 40 percent of those who have ever had intercourse). Thirty-two percent of sexually active white women have been pregnant, compared with 70 percent of comparable black women. Furthermore, whereas 14 percent of white 20-29-year-olds have had an out-of-wedlock birth, 62 percent of black women have done so.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Contraceptive use by college dating couples: A comparison of men's and women's reports

Most research on contraceptive behavior has focused on individual women rather than on couples. A study of 101 college dating couples examined three issues that have been largely ignored in previous research: the applicability of Lindemann's (1974) stage model of contraceptive use to couples, agreement between partners in reports of contraceptive methods used, and boyfriend's characteristics as correlates of contraceptive use. Stages of contraceptive use were increasingly related to the women's prior sexual experience, and decreasingly related to the man's. Agreement on birth control methods was very high for reports of prescription methods at most recent intercourse, but low for reports of no birth control at first intercourse. Use of prescription methods at most recent intercourse was more strongly related to the women's social characteristics (father's education, religious background) than to the man's. Results suggest that focusing on women as individuals is a useful strategy for research on contraceptive use, at least for unmarried women.

Factors influencing contraceptive behavior of single college students.

This study investigated the premarital contraceptive behavior of 222 male and female college students. Contraceptive practice was examined in relation to dating patterns, level of emotional involvement with the sex partner was heightened, the intercourse was planned, and the individual and prior sexual experience.

Gonococcal tonsillar infections.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae were cultured from tonsillar swabs in six men and six women out of 161 consecutive, unselected, Danish patients (95 men and 66 women) suffering from urogenital or rectal gonorrhoea. Gonococci were found in the tonsils in only one out of 49 foreign men with gonorrhoea. Eleven of the Danish patients admitted orogenital contact at their most recent intercourse. The gonococcal complement fixation test was negative in all except two cases. Standard singledose treatment cured the urogenital and rectal infections promptly but failed to cure the tonsillar infection in five cases, and in recalcitrant cases the organisms were demonstrable for some months.