Devon Alisa Abdallah

Influences of sexual sensation seeking, alcohol consumption, and sexual arousal on women's behavioral intentions related to having unprotected sex.

This experimental study examined effects of alcohol consumption and sexual sensation seeking on unprotected sex intentions, taking into account sexual arousal, indirectly discouraging sex, and condom insistence. Women (N = 173; mean age = 25.02) were randomly assigned to a control, placebo, low-dose beverage (target blood alcohol level = .04), or high- dose beverage (target blood alcohol level = .08) condition. Participants projected themselves into a hypothetical sexual interaction with a man in which no condom was available. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that both sexual sensation seeking and alcohol dose directly increased sexual arousal early in the interaction, but later sexual arousal indirectly increased unprotected sex intentions by decreasing endorsement of indirect discouragement and, in turn, condom insistence. These findings help to clarify the role of alcohol consumption and sensation seeking in womens sexual decision making and point to the importance of examining it as a multistage process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

How Do Alcohol and Relationship Type Affect Women's Risk Judgment of Partners With Differing Risk Histories?

Understanding how women judge male partners’ sexual risk is important to developing risk reduction programs. Applying a cognitive mediation model of sexual decision making, our study investigated effects of alcohol consumption (control, low dose, high dose) and relationship type (disrupted vs. new) on women’s risk judgments of a male sexual partner in three sexual risk conditions (low, unknown, and high). After random assignment to an experimental condition, 328 participants projected themselves into a story depicting a sexual interaction. The story was paused to assess primary appraisals of sexual and relationship potential and secondary appraisals of pleasure, health, and relationship concerns, followed by sexual risk judgments. In all risk conditions, alcohol and disrupted relationship increased sexual potential, whereas disrupted relationship increased relationship potential in the low- and high-risk conditions. In the unknown-risk condition, women in the no-alcohol, new relationship condition had the lowest primary sexual appraisals. In all conditions, sexual appraisals predicted all secondary appraisals, but primary relationship appraisals predicted only secondary relationship appraisals. Secondary health appraisals led to increased risk judgments, whereas relationship appraisals predicted lower risk judgments. Possible intervention points include helping women to re-evaluate their safety beliefs about past partners as well as to develop behavioral strategies for decreasing hazardous drinking.

Influences of acute alcohol consumption, sexual precedence, and relationship motivation on women’s relationship and sex appraisals and unprotected sex intentions:

Guided by the cognitive mediation model of sexual decision making (Norris, Masters, & Zawacki, 2004. Cognitive mediation of women’s sexual decision making: The influence of alcohol, contextual factors, and background variables. Annual Review of Sex Research, 15, 258–296), we examined female social drinkers’ (N = 162) in-the-moment risky sexual decision making by testing how individual differences (relationship motivation) and situational factors (alcohol consumption and sexual precedence conditions) influenced cognitive appraisals and sexual outcomes in a hypothetical sexual scenario. In a path model, acute intoxication, sexual precedence, and relationship motivation interactively predicted primary relationship appraisals and independently predicted primary sex appraisals. Primary appraisals predicted secondary appraisals related to relationship and unprotected sex, which predicted unprotected sex intentions. Sexual precedence directly increased unprotected sex intentions. Findings support the cognitive mediation model and suggest that sexual risk reduction interventions should address alcohol, relationship, sexual, and cognitive factors.

An Event-Level Investigation of Factors Associated With Young Women’s Experiences of Coerced Consensual Sex:

Little is known about instances of coerced consensual sex in which women report both that they consented to have sex and that their partner used coercive tactics (e.g., made threats) to get them to have sex when they did not want to. Yet, these experiences are frequently reported by young sexually active women. We examined the relationship between sexual victimization history and the woman’s level of alcohol intoxication in the likelihood of experiencing coerced consensual sex using event-level data collected over a 1-year period from 548 young adult nonproblem drinking women who engaged in sexual activity with men. Twenty percent (n = 112) reported at least one incident of coerced consensual sex. A generalized estimating equation model revealed main effects of daily estimated blood alcohol content (eBAC) and sexual victimization severity. The more women increased their alcohol consumption above their own average and the more severe their sexual victimization history, the more likely they were to experience coerced consensual sex. Our findings highlight the fact that coercion and consent are not mutually exclusive in some situations and shed light on this important yet understudied coercive sexual experience.

Descriptive and Prospective Analysis of Young Adult Alcohol Use and Romantic Relationships: Disentangling between- and within-Person Associations Using Monthly Assessments

ABSTRACT Background: Prior research on romantic relationships and alcohol use among young adults has not distinguished between differences in patterns of relationship status over extended periods of time and within-person changes in status that only occur for some individuals. Objectives: This study captured between-person differences in relationship patterns, assessed associations between relationship patterns and alcohol use, and examined within-person associations between alcohol use and relationship status changes. In addition, age and sex differences in between- and within-person associations were tested. Methods: We used multilevel modeling of monthly data collected over one year on alcohol use and romantic relationship status from a Seattle area community sample of 620 young adults (ages 18–24). Results: Participants were coded into six relationship pattern groups: (1) single-not-dating (16%), (2) stable-in-a-relationship (30%), (3) single-dating (10%), (4) ended-a-relationship (14%), (5) started-a-relationship (13%), and (6) ended-and-started-a-relationship (18%). Single-not-dating and stable-in-a-relationship groups reported the least drinking across the entire year; the single-dating, ended-a-relationship, and ended-and-started-a-relationship groups reported higher levels of drinking. Examining within-person changes in groups 3–6 revealed increases in drinking associated with months of dating among the single-dating group, months postbreakup among the ended-a-relationship group, and months of breaking up and starting a new relationship among the ended-and-started-a-relationship group. Few differences by age or sex were found for between- or within-person associations. Conclusions: The findings point to heterogeneity in patterns of relationship status over time, differences in relationship patterns associated with variations in drinking, and particular time points of elevated risk for young adults who experience changes in status.

Condom-Insistence Conflict in Women’s Alcohol-Involved Sexual Encounters With a New Male Partner

First-time sexual intercourse with a new male partner, relative to other sexual encounters, is associated with heightened risk to women for contracting sexually transmitted infections. Little is known, however, about women’s condom-related decision-making processes during these first-time sexual encounters. In the present study, we surveyed a community sample of 179 women aged 18–30 about their alcohol consumption, desire to use a condom, perception of their partner’s desire to use a condom, condom-insistence conflict, and condom-decision abdication and use during their most recent alcohol-involved first-time sexual encounter with a new partner. With structural equation modeling, we tested a cognitive mediation model with various configurations of alcohol effects on abdication and condom use (direct, indirect, and moderator). A moderated mediation model fit the data best. Women experienced elevated condom-insistence conflict when they wanted to use a condom and perceived their partner did not; conflict, in turn, was associated with higher likelihood of abdication and lower likelihood of condom use. Higher alcohol intoxication attenuated the associations of desire to use a condom, and perceived partner’s desire to use a condom, with conflict. Results support an alcohol myopia-conflict inhibition-reduction model and emphasize the importance of sex education programs that not only teach young women about condom-related assertiveness and the effects of alcohol but also prepare them to respond to experiences of conflict that arise during sexual encounters.

Partner Type, Sexual Double Standard Endorsement, and Ambivalence Predict Abdication and Unprotected Sex Intentions in a Community Sample of Young Women

In-the-moment ambivalence about having sex may influence sexual decisions but has rarely been examined. We investigated how ambivalence about sex might be related to intentions to abdicate sexual decisions to a male partner and to engage in unprotected sex in a community sample of young women. Predictors of abdication and unprotected sex intentions included partner type (new casual versus previous relationship), sexual double standard (SDS) endorsement, and two types of ambivalence. After completing a SDS endorsement measure, women (N = 360) projected themselves into a hypothetical sexual situation and completed dependent measures. In the new casual partner condition, SDS endorsement indirectly negatively predicted unprotected sex intentions through its associations with ambivalence and abdication. In both partner conditions SDS endorsement positively predicted abdication, which then positively predicted unprotected sex intentions. Ambivalence indirectly predicted unprotected sex intentions through its negative association with abdication intentions. Results suggest the importance of ambivalence for sexual decisions and the complexity of understanding the sexual decision making processes for women who endorse the SDS.