Sensation seeking, impulsive decision-making, and risky sex: implications for risk-taking and design of interventions

In an HIV prevention study, 2949 ninth-grade students in 17 high schools in two Midwestern U.S, cities were administered scales measuring sensation se eking and impulsive decision-making and their separate and combined relatio nships to a number of indicators of sexual risk-taking. Measures of sexual risk-taking included intentions to have sex, ever had sex, number of lifeti me sexual partners, been pregnant or caused a pregnancy, used a condom, use d marijuana, had unwanted sex when drunk, had unwanted sex under pressure, said no to sex, used alcohol or partner used alcohol before sex. Strong ass ociations were observed between each of the measures and sexual risk-taking for most of the indicators. Strongest associations were found among sexual ly active students high on both sensation seeking and impulsive decision-ma king and weakest associations among students low on both measures, Implicat ions for design of interventions in health campaigns are discussed. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.