and reported less enjoyment and more guilt about casual sex than did the men. However, women were found to be more concerned about the risks of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases than were men and to use condoms more frequently. Unfortunately, it was also noted that regardless of gender, many subjects had not used condoms during their last experience with casual sex.
The choice to be sexually active at any given time can also affect condom usage. In this regard, Severn (1990) examined and cross-tabulated demographic and lifestyle variables as well as behavioral patterns, attitudes, and feelings of college students regarding social responsibility and prevention of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and personal perceptions of risk for associations with condom usage.
Data, collected from 689 subjects, (45 percent of whom were male), were obtained from an instrument that was developed, tested, and revised through a pilot study. Eight demographic items were reported: age, gender, class standing, marital status, sexual preference, race, grade point average, and religion. Findings indicated that condom usage increased with age. However, among sexually active youths (those considered to be at great risk for contracting and spreading AIDS), findings showed fairly low frequencies of condom usage, a fact that was attributed to serious misperceptions about their own levels of risk.
Finally, one of the more consistent findings with respect to risk behavior on the part of young adults is that this risk increases with level of income. Specifically, low income men and women are far more likely than high income men and women to engage in unprotected sex (Norris & Ford, 1994).
The existing literature justifies this study's examination of selected demographic and behavioral factors (parental income, sex education for STDs, age, gender, the choice to currently be sexually active) for association with differences in...