The perceived threat of sexual communication, number of previous sexual partners and topic avoidance in romantic relationships

ABSTRACT

Perceived threat of communicating about one’s sexual history (PTCSH) and sexual history topic avoidance (SHTA) were examined in this study. PTSCH references the anticipated possible consequences of discussing prior sexual activity, and SHTA refers to the phenomenon of avoiding the subject of prior sexual activity. Participants (n = 330) filled out measures designed to assess their PTCSH, SHTA, and were also asked to report their number of previous sexual partners. SPSS and the PROCESS macro were employed to probe relationships between these variables. As expected, PTCSH was significantly and positively associated with individuals’ number of previous sexual partners and SHTA. Further analyses confirmed a proposed mediational model, wherein PTSCH served as a mediator in the association between number of previous sexual partners and SHTA. Implications for how individuals’ number of previous sexual partners and social expectations for sexual behaviour may affect communication in close relationships are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication
• topic avoidance
• sexual behaviour
• interpersonal relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Age of participants was restricted to those under 30, as this study was meant to assess the experience of individuals at a casual or moderate level of intimacy (i.e. before marriage). As the upper bound of current estimates of the average age of marriage is approximately 30 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014), individuals above this age were excluded from the sample.

2. These data were collected as part of a larger project that focused exclusively on heterosexual romantic relationships.

3. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the data obtained for this scale. Principal axis factoring utilising a direct oblimin rotation yielded one factor with an eignenvalue greater than 1.0. All items loaded on this factor (loadings = .59–.90) and this factor explained 65.94% of the variance. Examination of the resulting scree plot confirmed that only one factor was present. The scale was thus interpreted to represent a unidimensional measure of SHTA.

4. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the data using the programme Mplus to ensure that the scale captured the two intended dimensions of PTCSH (perceived threat to the self and perceived threat to the relationship). The scale is relatively new and so has not received extensive testing in other studies. A two-factor model was compared to a one-factor model using a chi-square difference test. A one-factor model (χ² = 680.07, df = 35) resulted in a significant loss of fit (Δχ² = 602.46, p < .001) from the two-factor model (χ² = 77.60, df = 29), so the two-factor model was retained. The two-factor model displayed adequate fit (comparative fit index = .98; Tucker-Lewis index = .97, standardised root mean-square residual  = .05).

5. Participants missing relevant data were excluded via list-wise deletion in this and all subsequent analyses. Men: r = .26, df = 89, ns; Women: r = .10, df = 228, ns.

6. Men: r = .34, df = 88, p = .001; Women: r = .27, df = 226, p < .001.

7. Post hoc analyses were undertaken for H1 and H2 to check for moderation by relationship length as well. No significant moderation was present.

8. To explore the possibility that the number of acceptable partners for an individual might fluctuate across the range of ages of participants, all analyses were rerun with age entered as a control variable or covariate. In no case did this addition produce any appreciable change in the results.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Madeleine Redlick

Madeleine Redlick (M.A., 2015) is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Communication Studies.