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Assortativity and Mixing by Sexual Behaviors and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Young Adult Heterosexual Dating Partnerships.

ABSTRACT: Assortative sexual mixing, the tendency for individuals to choose partners with similar characteristics to themselves, may be an important contributor to the unequal distribution of sexually transmitted infections in populations. We analyzed the tendency for assortative mixing on demographic and sexual behaviors characteristics in newly formed young adults dating partnerships.Women aged 18 to 24 years and their male sexual partners of no more than 6 months were recruited during 2005 to 2010 at universities in Montreal, Canada. New dating partners were also prospectively recruited during the 2-year follow-up. We used Spearman and Newman coefficients to examine correlations between partners' demographic characteristics and sexual behaviors, and multivariable logistic modeling to determine which characteristics were assortative.Participants in 502 recruited partnerships were assortative on age (Spearman P = 0.60), smoking behavior (P = 0.43), ethnicity (Newman coefficient=0.39), lifetime number of sexual partners (P = 0.36), sex partner acquisition rates (P = 0.22), gap length between partnerships (P = 0.20), and on whether they had concurrent partners (P = 0.33). Partners were assortative on number of lifetime partners, sexual partner acquisition rates, concurrency, and gap length between partnerships even after adjustment for demographic characteristics. Reported condom use was correlated between initial and subsequently recruited partners (P = 0.35). There was little correlation between the frequencies of vaginal/oral/digital/anal sex between subsequent partnerships.Dating partnerships were substantially assortative on various sexual behaviors as well as demographic characteristics. Though not a representative population sample, our recruitment of relatively new partnerships reduces survivor bias inherent to cross-sectional surveys where stable long-term partnerships are more likely to be sampled.

SUBMITTER: Malagon T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5431278 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assortativity and Mixing by Sexual Behaviors and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Young Adult Heterosexual Dating Partnerships.

Malagón Talía T Burchell Ann A El-Zein Mariam M Tellier Pierre-Paul PP Coutlée François F Franco Eduardo L EL

Sexually transmitted diseases 20170601 6

<h4>Background</h4>Assortative sexual mixing, the tendency for individuals to choose partners with similar characteristics to themselves, may be an important contributor to the unequal distribution of sexually transmitted infections in populations. We analyzed the tendency for assortative mixing on demographic and sexual behaviors characteristics in newly formed young adults dating partnerships.<h4>Methods</h4>Women aged 18 to 24 years and their male sexual partners of no more than 6 months were ...[more]

PMID: 28499281

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Project description:IntroductionLiterature on the association between dating app use and sexual risk behaviors is still scant and inconclusive.AimTo investigate the association between dating app use and sexual risk behaviors, considering the role of motives for using them.Methods1,278 Italian respondents completed an online questionnaire assessing demographics, motives and patterns of dating app use, sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) diagnoses. One-way ANOVA and Chi-squared analyses were used to investigate differences among the three subsamples (active vs former vs non-users). Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were run to investigate the role of demographics, motives and patterns of dating app use on sexual risk taking and sexual health.Main outcome measuresNumber of protected and unprotected full sexual partners in the last year; frequency of hook-ups in the last year; STIs lifetime.ResultsActive users, even more than former app users, were more likely to report risky behaviors and STI diagnoses than non-users (χ2 = 26.37, P < .001). Installing the apps to find friends or romantic partners was associated with less protected (find friends B = -0.364, P = .015; find romantic partners B = -0.300, P = .006) and unprotected (find friends B = -0.346, P = .016; find romantic partners B = -0.360, P < .001) sexual intercourses. Installing the apps to find sexual partners predicted higher odds of unprotected sexual activity (B = 0.193, P = .048), hook-ups (B = 0.496, P < .001) and STIs diagnoses (OR = 2.835, P = .025). Accessing apps more frequently and more years of usage was associated with reporting risky sexual behaviors and STI diagnoses among active users (app access frequency OR = 1.461, P = .003; usage years OR = 1.089, P = .013).ConclusionInstalling the apps to search for sexual partners, using them at length since first installation and accessing them frequently are significant factors in influencing the association between dating app use and sexual risk behaviors. Flesia L, Fietta V, Foresta C, Monaro M. "What Are You Looking For?" Investigating the Association Between Dating App Use and Sexual Risk Behaviors. Sex Med 2021;9:100405.

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Dataset Information

Assortativity and Mixing by Sexual Behaviors and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Young Adult Heterosexual Dating Partnerships.

Publications

Assortativity and Mixing by Sexual Behaviors and Sociodemographic Characteristics in Young Adult Heterosexual Dating Partnerships.

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