ICPR Abstracts: Session 43

---

Session 43: Papers

Engaging in High-Risk Sexual Behaviours

43.1
Pubertal Development and Parent-child Conflict
in Low-income, Urban, African-American Adolescents:
Links to Experiences in Sexual Possibility Situations

Lynda M. Sagrestano, Sheila H. Parfenoff,
 and Roberta L. Paikoff, University of Illinois
Grayson N. Holmbeck, Loyola University

Early pubertal development has been linked to greater risk 
for teenage pregnancy and HIV exposure. The current 
study examined puberty, parent-child conflict, and 
exposure to sexual possibility situations in a sample of 
low-income urban African-American families.  Results 
indicated that parents reported using more verbal 
aggression with more physically developed boys, and more 
developed boys reported more conflict with their parents 
than did less developed boys.  Early maturing children 
reported more conflict with their parents than did children 
developing on time. Children's reports of higher conflict 
were associated with increased experiences in sexual 
possibility situations.  Results are discussed with respect 
to interventions to reduce HIV.

43.2
Perceptions of and Scripts for Sexual Behaviour
in Committed and Noncommitted Relationships:
The Impact on Women's Contraceptive Behavior

Michaela Hynie and John E. Lydon
McGill University

A person perception experiment was conducted to 
determine the influence of intimacy and commitment on 
the acceptability of a woman's contraceptive preparedness.  
Women rated a female target's personality after reading a 
diary entry describing an initial sexual encounter.  The 
target was perceived as more sexually experienced when 
she provided a condom.  However, sexual experience only 
influenced personality ratings in a noncommitted 
relationship where the target was perceived as less "nice" 
when she provided the condom, but less "wise" when her 
partner did.  Results are discussed with respect to 
relational and recreational sexual scripts. 

43.3
Sharing Sexual Histories: Who Talks Before, Who 
Talks After, and Who Doesn't Talk At All

F. Scott Christopher and Yvonne Kellar-Guenther
Arizona State University

AIDS interventionists have suggested that individuals 
share sexual histories so as to prompt protective behaviors.  
We surveyed 261 coitally active heterosexuals to test the 
hypothesis that relational and social network variables 
would discriminate between those who did not share their 
sexual past, those who shared their pasts prior to 
intercourse, and those who shared after intercourse. 
Discriminant analysis revealed two significant 
discriminant functions, one focused on relationship 
dynamics and a second focused on social network.  Our 
findings demonstrate the need for interventionists to 
incorporate relational and social factors into their 
prevention efforts.

43.4
Personal and Relational Barriers to Condom Use:
A Cross-Cultural Study

Kenzie A. Cameron
Michigan State University

This paper focuses on individuals' perceptions of condom 
use, at both a personal and (perceived) relational level.  
The subjects, drawn from a cross-cultural sample (United 
States, Kenya) rated their agreement with a series of 
statements developed to assess personal and relational 
barriers to condom use.  The data were analyzed cross-
culturally, as well as by sex.  In addition, it was 
determined if there were any differences regarding 
perceived susceptibility to contraction of HIV of those 
respondents with high personal barriers as compared to 
those respondents with high perceived relational barriers. 

43.5
Determinants of Sexual Request Scripts
Among French-speaking College Students in Quebec

Joseph Lévy, Joanne Otis, Jean-Marc Samson,
Annie Fugére, and François Pilote
Université  du Québec à  Montréal

Sexual interpersonal relations linked to risk-taking 
behaviors related to AIDS have not yet received enough 
theoretical consideration. In order to more precisely 
understand the determinants of sexual requests, a sample 
of 2828 subjects of both sexes, recruited in all French-
speaking colleges in Québec, completed a questionnaire on 
their sexuality and interpersonal relations. A multiple 
regression analysis indicates that gender is the most 
significant factor in predicting sexual requests with men 
taking initiative more often than women. Sexual efficacy 
was also a predictor as well as variables such as initiative 
in condom-use, perceived level of domination from the 
partner and efficacy in controlling sexual drives.