The Situational Contexts of Sexual Experiences among Urban College Students: An Event-Based Analysis

Abstract

Objectives

Research examining sex among college students has frequently focused on negative sexual experiences. This study aimed to understand situational predictors of various dimensions of students’ sexual experiences. Methods: 427 college students participated in a 60-day daily survey; 213 reported sex and were asked questions about each sexual encounter. Results: 1,664 sexual encounters were reported. 72.5% were described as very pleasurable, 26.6% as lacking communication, and 9.1% as lacking control. Factors associated with pleasure, control, and communication included partner type and emotional closeness. Substance use and partner age were associated with outcomes differently by gender. Conclusions: Sexual health interventions for college students should focus on communication and pleasure.

Keywords:

• Event-level analysis
• college students
• sexual behaviors
• pleasure
• communication

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1 Cells with small sample size (i.e. less than 5 responses) were not tested due to lack of validity of chi-square results for small cell counts.

2 In cases where more than one variable emerged as significant (p < 0.05), we conducted multivariate analyses in order to examine the effects of each situational variable after controlling for the effects of other predictors. Of note, adjusted prevalence estimates of different types of sexual encounters were calculated from predicted marginal log-odds derived from the multivariate logistic regression models (Bieler et al., 2010). Adjusted prevalences were compared via t-tests.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Columbia University through generous support from multiple donors. The authors thank our research participants; the Undergraduate Advisory Board; Columbia University, and the entire SHIFT team who contributed to the development and implementation of this ambitious effort particularly our Program Director, Leigh Reardon, and quantitative research assistants Karimata Bah and Stephanie Benson.