Women's Sexual Sensation Seeking and Risk Taking in Leisure Travel

Abstract

This study investigated young women's perceptions of sexual risk in leisure travel contexts with the purpose of developing a measurement scale for sexual risk taking in tourism. Perceived dimensions of sexual risk taking and the differences across sexual sensation-seeking propensity levels were explored. The data were collected using an online survey and analyzed using exploratory structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that sexual risk taking in leisure travel is a multidimensional construct including physical/sexual health, mental/emotional, and sociocultural factors. Additionally, women's perceptions of these factors differ according to their sexual sensation-seeking propensity as participants reporting higher levels of sexual sensation seeking rated physical/sexual health and mental/emotional risks lower than those with lower sensation-seeking levels. This study provides a more in-depth understanding of and a measurement scale for sexual risk taking in leisure travel contexts than previously existed.

Keywords:

• sexual risk taking
• sexual sensation seeking
• young women
• exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM)
• 13-model taxonomy of ESEM full-measurement invariance