Sexual sensation seeking, hookups, and alcohol consumption among first-year college students

Abstract

Objective

To explore sexual sensation seeking (SSS) among an ethnically-diverse sample of first-year college students and their hookup behaviors.

Participants

1,480 first-year college students who hooked up in the last 30 days were recruited from four universities in 2016.

Methods

Students completed an online survey before completing an online STI and alcohol prevention intervention.

Results

Male and sexual minority students had significantly higher SSS scores compared to female and heterosexual students respectively. Students with higher SSS scores were less likely to report condom use at last vaginal and anal hookup, more likely to hookup under the influence of alcohol and participate in a wide range of sexual behaviors. There were no significant mean differences in SSS scores by level of intoxication during their last hookup.

Conclusion

These findings highlight the role of SSS in predicting sexual risk behaviors of first-year college students and the overall low SSS scores among this sample.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• college students
• hookups
• sexual sensation seeking

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported with funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01 AA02293; PI: L. Collins), National Institute on Drug Abuse (P50 DA039838), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (awards UL1 TR000127 and TR002014).