Gender-Roles, Power, and Condom Use in Adolescent Dating Relationships.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have a disproportionate and more devastating impact on women than Men; adolescent women are at the greatest risk for acquiring STDs. However, promoting consistent condom use among female adolescents involves dealing with complex socio-cultural factors, including deep ambivalence regarding sexuality in general, women's sexuality in particular, and adolescent girls' sexuality in specific. This cultural ambivalence comes into play in dating relationships where differences in the allocation of power and responsibility often make it difficult to effect important sexual decisions such as consistent condom use. Specific attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions that distinguish between couples who use condoms consistently and those who do not are explored. It is hypothesized that couples who are egalitarian in their attitudes and behaviors and who share power equally are more likely to consistently use condoms. This project used self-report, interview, and observer-coded interaction data to study gender role attitudes and behavior, power in verbal interaction, emotional power, decision-making power, and condom use. Although difficulty was encountered in distinguishing between consistent and inconsistent users of condoms, findings are summarized in nine brief statements. The next steps in this research program are presented. (Author/EMK) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Gender-roles, Power,and Condom-Use in Adolescent Dating Relationships U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 Thm document has been reproduced se received from the person or Organization Ong mating it. 0 Mmor changes have been made to improve reproduction oualdy. Points of mew Or opinions stated in this document do not necessardy represent official OE RI position or pOlCy. Sharon Scales Rostosky, Ph.D. Renee VickermanGalliher, M.S. Deborah Perlman Welsh, Ph.D. The University of Tennessee "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Sexually transmitted diseases have a disproportionate and more devastating impact on women than men (Wasserheit & Holmes, 1992). Among women, adolescents are at the greatest risk for acquiring STDs (Institute of Medicine, 1997). Yet, sex researchers have noted that promoting consistent condom-use among female adolescents involves dealing with complex socio-cultural factors. One pervasive socio-cultural factor is the deep ambivalence regarding sexuality in general, women's sexuality in particular, and adolescent girls' sexuality in specific (Rostosky & Travis, in press; Welsh, Rostosky, & Kawaguchi, in press). This cultural ambivalence filters down to the gender roles enacted in the context of the dating relationships of adolescent women. Despite evidence that egalitarian relationships between men and women are increasingly valued, women are still socialized to take responsibility for controlling male sexual behavior and using condoms to prevent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease. Often, however, this responsibility is not accompanied by the structural or interpersonal power resources to effect important sexual decisions such as consistent condom use (Quina, in press). In this study, we attempted to discover some specific attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions that distinguish between couples who use condoms consistently and those who do not. Specifically, we hypothesized that couples who are egalitarian in their attitudes and behaviors and who share power equally are more likely to consistently use condoms. Method Participants. Sixty-one target adolescents and their romantic partners participated in our study. Target adolescents were 18 or 19 years of age and were located through high school year books and newpaper listings of recent high school graduates (n=37) or through freshman level psychology courses (n=24). The length of dating relationships ranged from four weeks to five years (median= eight months). Most of the particants lived with two parents (72% of girls and 57% of boys). Although many of the participants held part-time jobs (49% of girls and 28% of boys), almost all were enrolled in either high school or college (80% of girls and 74% of boys). The couples in the sample were primarily European-American (90% Of girls and 93% of boys), with the remainder being comprised of approximately 2-3% each of Native American, Asian, African American, and Hispanic individuals. Procedure and Measures. As part of the larger study on adolescent romantic relationships, each couple was scheduled for a total of 4 1/2 hours of data collection which included structured interview, video-recall, and questionnaire segments. This project used the following self-report, interview, and observer-coded interaction data. Gender-role attitudes and behavior. Attitudes toward traditional sex roles were assessed using mean scores on the 4-point likert, 12-item Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (Galambos, Petersen, Richards, & Gitelson, 1985). Higher mean scores (range 1-4) indicate more egalitarian attitudes. As an indicator of gender-role behavior, questionnaire items assessed each partner's perception of who most frequently drove the car and paid for dating activities and who initiated/curtailed sexual behavior. Power in verbal interaction. Couples were videotaped having two 11-minute conversations. One of these conversations involved discussing their own views about parenting teenagers. The second was a discussion of a hypothetical moral dilemma concerning issues related to sexual decision-making in romantic relationship (Gilligan, Kohlberg, Lerner, & Belenky, 1971) which we modified slightly to fit contemporary language norms. For each conversation, couples were given instructions and a written description of the discussion topic, then we left them alone CO to interact. Two trained coders watched the two video-taped conversations for each of the sixty couples and 00 CN o 1