bims-chumac 2022-06-26 papers

Issue of 2022–06–26
five papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

Sex Cult. 2022 Jun 15. 1-19

Sex at Sea: Undergraduates' Perceptions of Sexual Relationships During Their Semester at Sea Voyage.

Often viewed as right of passage in emerging adulthood on college campuses, most undergraduate students participate in casual sex during their undergraduate career. Sexual exploration typically continues during study abroad programs; however, these programs have previously been associated with an increase in risky sexual behavior due to a lack of familiar social norms and community. The current study examined the casual sexual relationships of 302 undergraduates participating in Semester at Sea, an eleven country, 106-day voyage which incorporates aspects of a traditional college campus combined with the novel experience of studying abroad. The purpose of this research was to explore students' casual sexual relationship perceptions and behaviors in the context of a structured and community-oriented study abroad environment. Over half (52%) of the student population completed a series of open-ended questions regarding their uncommitted sexual activity during the Semester at Sea voyage. Results indicated that 16.9% of students engaged in at least one casual sexual relationship over the course of the trip. Casual sex relationships on-board the Semester at Sea voyage were less prevalent than those on traditional college campuses, but casual sex relationships at sea appeared to focus more on the importance of communication and boundaries during the sexual relationship and concluded on a more positive note. It is likely that these decisions were influenced by the established communal culture on-board the ship, which encouraged students to maintain harmonious social relationships and a high level of awareness of others.

Keywords: Casual sex; Emerging adults; Qualitative analysis; Semester at Sea; Study abroad

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09980-8

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 07. pii: 6979. [Epub ahead of print]19(12):

Sexual Self-Concept Differentiation: An Exploratory Analysis of Online and Offline Self-Perspectives.

Alexandru Mateizer, Andra Cătălina Roșca, Eugen Avram.

Self-concept differentiation (SCD) has been of interest to researchers, mainly as a structural concept indicative of social specialization or self-concept fragmentation. Nevertheless, this aspect of self-representation has not been studied in regard to sexuality and the extent to which the sexual self may vary across different roles or situations. With the emergence of the Internet, people found new opportunities to explore and express aspects of their sexuality in multiple online scenes, thus increasing the complexity of human sexual experience and expanding the reach of sexual identity. The aim of this study is to investigate SCD in relation to the sexual self-concept, as experienced in the online and offline environments, and its effects on sexual identity, sexual satisfaction and online sexual behaviors. Data analysis pointed towards a fragmented self-view with high degrees of differentiation between the online and offline sexual self-instances being linked to a weaker sense of sexual identity, less sexual satisfaction in real life and less partnered online interactions. However, there were some indications that these relationships were influenced by how people perceive themselves sexually in one instance compared to the other. The results obtained in this study encourage further research on SCD as an important factor in understanding the real-world consequences of online sexual expression.

Keywords: online sexual activities; self-concept differentiation; sexual identity; sexual self

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19126979

Trauma Violence Abuse. 2022 Jun 22. 15248380221109787

Interparental Conflict and Young Adult Romantic Relationships: A Systematic Review.

Shrutkirti Singh, Elizabeth Thomas.

In the last two decades, researchers have been progressively investigating the impact of interparental conflict (IPC) on young adults romantic relationships. This systematic review aimed to synthesize literature on IPC and romantic relationship outcomes among young adults and highlight mechanisms found in this link. Following the PRISMA protocol, 3232 studies were identified using Boolean searches on ProQuest, PubMed, EBSCOhost, Jstor, Cochrane, and Google Scholar, and 17 met the eligibility criteria. To be included, in addition to having IPC and romantic relationship outcomes as variables, studies had to be quantitative in design, have a mean sample age of 18-25, include only participants in romantic relationships at the time of the study, and be published in English with full text available. The review found that IPC is associated with negative conflict management, both perpetration and victimization of aggression, worse communication, negative conflict behaviors, and poor relationship quality. Other outcomes like relationship satisfaction, commitment, as well as mediator variables in the link between IPC and young adult romantic relationship outcomes, such as attitudes towards marriage and conflict attributions, yielded varied results. Several shortcomings in the methodology of the reviewed articles, such as the research sample and measures, were discovered. To deal with the impact of IPC on offspring's romantic relationships, preventive interventions should be designed and evaluated, and more research with different variables and study designs, with more men, other ethnicities, and more representative sample frames are needed to detect crucial mediators and obtain reliable and generalizable results.

Keywords: college students; conflict; dating; interparental conflict; romantic relationships; systematic review; young adults

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380221109787

J Am Coll Health. 2022 Jun 21. 1-5

Thanks for the offer: Testing drink offers as predictors of sexual activity.

Hannah R Hamilton, Stephen Armeli, Howard Tennen.

Objective: Drink offers are related to increased alcohol consumption, which is linked to sexual activity among college students. However, offers of alcohol may increase the odds of sexual activity that night independent of the amount of alcohol consumed. Participants: 540 undergraduate students were recruited for a longitudinal study of daily experiences. Method: Participants completed up to four annual waves of a measurement burst daily diary study. Using these longitudinal data, we examined whether receiving a drink offer on a given night was related to greater odds of having sex. Results: Receiving a drink offer (but not the number of drinks accepted) is related to greater odds of having sex, controlling for drinking level. Conclusions: Receiving a drink offer is uniquely related to odds of having sex when controlling for the amount of alcohol participants consumed. This may have implications for psychological functioning and relationship development.

Keywords: Drink offers; alcohol; college students; sex

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2086435

Front Psychol. 2022 ;13 868275

Research on Factors Affecting Chinese College Students' Marriage Intention: Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Jianwei Xie, Xiaochang Hong.

With the second demographic transition, the marriage rate in China has decreased annually. This reduction will have a key impact on national economic and social development. There is a need to investigate the factors that influence college students' marriage intentions, which can predict the development trend of marriage and family formation in China's future society to some extent. Previous studies focus on the extraction of college students' beliefs about marriage and love, whereas few studies have investigated how these beliefs affect marriage intention and marriage behaviour. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, this study aims to explore the impact of attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control on marriage intention; analysed the key predictors of college students' marriage intentions; and provided implications for pro-marriage policy. Using convenience sampling, data were obtained from 772 college students (mean age = 20.38 ± 2.38 years; 64.5% women) from three universities in China. Two types of questionnaires were designed to elicit salient beliefs and marriage intentions, respectively. Students' marriage intentions were positively correlated with attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. Most participants were inclined to get married, and the marriage intention of women was significantly lower than that of men. The important beliefs and factors influence students' marriage intention included stereotypical gender identity, low fertility intention, weakened inter-generational transmission of traditional family ideas, materialisation of marriage, and negative information about marriage disseminated by the mass media. To promote college students' marriage intention, pro-marriage policies conducive to fertility, good economic prospects, more employment opportunities, positive publicity of marriage by the mass media are suggested to make, and it is necessary for universities to offer marriage and love courses to college students.

Keywords: Chinese college students; attitude towards the behaviour; marriage intention; perceived behavioural control; subjective norm

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.868275