Condom use in steady and casual sexual relationships: Planning, preparation and willingness to take risks among adolescents

Abstract

Condom use within steady and casual sexual relationships was examined among 14–16 year old Dutch adolescents from secondary school (N = 140). It was hypothesised that among adolescents sex and subsequently condom use with casual sex partners is less likely to be considered in advance, more context-dependent and less habitual; whereas the opposite is true for steady relationships. Therefore, preparatory behaviours (buying and carrying condoms and communicating about condom use) were expected to mediate the intention–behaviour relation in the context of steady relationships, but not in the context of casual sex. Results confirmed that condom use with steady sex partners was explained by preparatory behaviours, habits, and to some extent, behavioural willingness, and that preparatory behaviours mediated the intention–behaviour relationship. Condom use with casual sex partners was predicted by risk willingness and intentions, without any mediation by preparatory behaviours. The results indicate that it is essential to increase awareness among adolescents that unexpected sexual situations may occur and to train them to take preparatory actions.

Keywords:

• Preparatory behaviours
• behavioural willingness
• habits
• condom use
• young people
• planned behaviour

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a grant from The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, project no. 40050001). We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Finally we would like to thank Emma Massey for making some last corrections and comments.

Notes

¹ When excluding communication, the reliability of the preparatory behaviours among those with steady relationships was α = 0.65 (r = 0.49) and for casual partners it was α = 0.61 (r = 0.45). For the results reported we included communication about condoms as well (because intended communication about condoms fit well with the other preparatory intention measures). However, no differences were found in the results reported when similar analyses were carried out, excluding communication about condoms.