Citation

Horan SM. J. Soc. Pers. Relat. 2016; 33(4): 449-468.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0265407515578821

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Individuals aged 15-24 years account for half of all new sexually transmitted infections. Such diseases are preventable, and communication lies at the center of this prevention. One safer sex behavior rooted in communication is the disclosure of one's sexual history. Consistent with this perspective, and utilizing affection exchange theory (AET), this study focused on one aspect of sexual history discussions by examining the (dis)honesty of individuals' disclosures of their number of previous sexual partners and associated safer sex behavior/communication.

RESULTS indicated that roughly two-thirds of participants correctly identified disclosure of the number of previous sexual partners as a safer sex practice. Yet about 60% of participants had, at some point, acted deceptively with their representation of their number of previous partners, and of those, nearly 20% never disclosed their number of previous partners. Deception about number of previous partners accounted for some differences in safer sex behaviors. Additionally, individuals who reported omitting their number of previous partners from all sexual partners also reported being the least comfortable with safer sex communication. Applied implications as well as implications for AET are discussed.

Language: en