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The Effects of Alcohol and Sexual Arousal on Determinants of Sexual Risk in Men Who Have Sex with Men

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Abstract

Primary prevention efforts aimed at sexual risk behaviors are critical. This experiment was designed to investigate the effects of alcohol intoxication and sexual arousal, as well as person variables of alcohol sex expectancies and attitudes toward condom use, on hypothesized determinants of sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM). The participants were 117 MSM aged 21–50 years who were randomly assigned to one of six separate experimental conditions created by the combination of beverage administration (water control, placebo or alcohol designed to raise blood alcohol level to .07%) and sexual arousal (low or high, manipulated by participants’ viewing non-erotic or mildly erotic film clips). Participants attended two experimental sessions. The first session included completing questionnaires about beliefs about alcohol’s effects on sex and attitudes toward condoms’ effect on sexual pleasure. The second session involved the beverage condition and arousal manipulations. Following these, participants viewed and responded to two interactive videos depicting high sexual risk scenarios. Participants also completed the CARE, a measure of risk perceptions. The dependent variables were behavioral skills, intentions to have unsafe sex, and “risk exposure,” derived from responses to the videos. The results of both planned and exploratory analyses showed general support for the hypothesized enhancement of alcohol’s effects on sexual risk by both sexual arousal and expectancies. Also as predicted, condom attitudes showed direct relationships to risk exposure and intentions. Implications of the findings for models of alcohol’s effects on sexual risk and for the development of HIV prevention interventions were discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants R01 AA14480 and K05 AA16928 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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Author notes

  1. Sarah E. Woolf-King

    Present address: University of California-San Francisco Medical School, San Francisco, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Stephen A. Maisto, Peter A. Vanable, Jessie Heath & Sarah E. Woolf-King

  2. Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Tibor Palfai

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  1. Stephen A. Maisto
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  2. Tibor Palfai
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Correspondence to Stephen A. Maisto.

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Maisto, S.A., Palfai, T., Vanable, P.A. et al. The Effects of Alcohol and Sexual Arousal on Determinants of Sexual Risk in Men Who Have Sex with Men. Arch Sex Behav 41, 971–986 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9846-x

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