Services and Information for Sexually Compulsive Students on College Counseling Center Websites: Results from a National Sample

Abstract

One factor that may prevent a small but significant percentage of college students from achieving sexual health is sexual compulsivity, a problem of sexual control that is associated with a number of negative health outcomes, including high HIV risk behavior. In this study we content analyzed a randomly selected stratified national sample of 203 4-year U.S. colleges' counseling center websites to assess the degree to which such sites feature information and reference services for sexually compulsive students. Results revealed that sexual compulsivity communications were rare, especially in comparison with communications for other mental health issues. For instance, less than 5% of counseling centers spoke of individual counseling opportunities for students struggling with sexual compulsivity, while between 60% and 80% of counseling centers advertised their capacity to provide individual counseling for students struggling with alcohol and substance abuse, depression, stress/anxiety, and pathological eating. Possible explanations for the paucity of sexual compulsivity messages are discussed.

Notes

¹While many definitions of sexual health have been proposed (see Edwards and Coleman, 2004, for a review of definitions, and Sandfort and Ehrhardt, 2004, for a commentary on the very notion of sexual health), virtually all conceptualizations agree that a person is in a state of sexual health when she or he (a) possesses sexual volition, and (b) engages in sexual activity that promotes (or at least does not impede) physiological well-being and psychosocial functioning. Since sexually compulsive persons are unable to control their sexual behavior and experience undesirable physiological and psychosocial outcomes as a result of their sexual compulsiveness, sexual compulsivity is a detriment to sexual health by almost any definition.

^a Goodness-of-fit χ² tests of the frequency of communications about all mental health issues, including sexual compulsivity, for each website variable.

^b Goodness-of-fit χ² tests contrasting the frequency of communications about sexual compulsivity with each comparison mental health issue, for each website variable.

*p < .01.