“It is Not Just about Me”: A Relational Understanding of Young Women's Sexual Negotiations

Abstract

Social work has historically been reactive in approaching young women's sexuality, often focusing on the consequences of unintended pregnancy. This pattern has inadvertently perpetuated the silencing of young women's sexual selves, leaving them vulnerable in sexual decision making. This article presents a new conceptual model to explore relational influences on young women's sexual negotiations. It extends the theory of planned behavior, previously used to predict contraceptive use, by incorporating the self‐in‐relation model, which addresses gender differences in decision making. A case scenario depicts how practitioners can explore the difficulties of sexual negotiation and develop possible solutions in a manner that is consistent with young women's lived experiences.

Keywords:

• gender
• sexual decision making
• theory
• interpersonal relationships

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Dr. McCave would like to thank Dr. David Burton for his thoughtful editorial comments in the final preparation of this manuscript.

Notes

1. A Latina client was chosen not to perpetuate negative stereotypes, but rather to highlight the reality that Latina women have the highest rates of unintended pregnancies, followed next by African American women, then White women (Kaplan, Erickson, & Juarez‐Reyes, 2002). As such, specific cultural factors should also be explored as it relates to sexual negotiation.

2. Author received permission from Ajzen (2006) Theory of Planned Behavior model for figure use.