Sensation seeking and impulsivity as predictors of high-risk sexual behaviours among international travellers

ABSTRACT

Disease transmission across borders may occur during the context of international travel and is a critical public health arena for study. This study examined the associations between personality factors (sensation seeking and impulsivity) and international travellers’ engagement in high-risk sexual behaviours during their trip(s) abroad. Overall, we found that the profile of high-risk and non-high-risk international travellers were statistically significantly different (i.e. high-risk international travellers had a higher tendency for sensation seeking and impulsivity; had a greater number of lifetime sexual partners; were more likely to be male, non-White, younger, non-married or not in a committed relationship, gay, lesbian or bisexual; and had lower educational attainment). Variables that positively predicted participants’ high-risk sexual behaviours were measures of impulsivity, number of sexual partners, gender (i.e. being male), and educational attainment. The participants’ age, however, was negatively associated with their high-risk sexual behaviours. Our study concurs with previous research findings suggesting that sensation seeking and impulsive behaviours are related to the practice of high-risk sexual behaviours. Findings from this study can be used to create more translational research in tourism for frequent international travellers.

KEYWORDS:

• International travellers
• high-risk sexual behaviours
• sensation seeking
• impulsivity
• sexually transmitted diseases

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Marisela Padilla for her assistance in Spanish-English translation of survey items.

This study effort was supported by the DHS Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions Follow-on Funding awarded to the first two authors.

This article was developed under an appointment to the DHS Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions, administered for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between DHS and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) under DOE contract number DE-SC0014664. This document has not been formally reviewed by DHS. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of DHS, DOE, or ORAU/ORISE. DHS, DOE and ORAU/ORISE do not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The PI (i.e., the first author of this article) has obtained permission from the original authors to use the scale items in the study.

2 We have also tried to refine our model using other variables such as the age of the participants when they first had sex, but further testing indicated that the variable was not critical to the model.

3 We also attempted to incorporate income as a proxy measure for the participants’ socio-economic status, but due to the study’s small effect size, sensitivity analysis indicated that the participants’ educational attainment was deemed to be a more appropriate variable.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Homeland Security Summer Research Team Program for Minority Serving Institutions Follow-on Funding.