19th Annual Student Research Conference
Human Potential and Performance
A survey of first-year college students’ perceptions of campus-wide risky sexual behavior
Sarah Shelton*, Carrie DeCarli, and Emily M. Forsyth
Dr. Carol Cox and Dr. Roberta Donahue, Faculty Mentors
The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions that first-year students at a rural Midwestern university (N=643) have about the average college student’s sexual behavior, as well as the new students’ own sexual behavior. Methods: An e-mail was sent to the randomly selected first-year students which provided a link to the survey. The students’ submitted responses went anonymously into Excel where all the data was compiled. This data was entered into SPSS and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: A large majority of the students thought that 92.4% of the average college population participates in some form of sexual intercourse at least once a month, with 78.7% having unprotected sex at least once a month. Conclusions: Many of the participants chose not to respond in the personal sexual behavior section, but those that did overestimated the amount of sexual activity in which the average college student participated.
Keywords: sexual perceptions, sexual behavior, reasoned action, false consensus
Topic(s):Health Science
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 60-40
Location: OP Lobby and Atrium
Time: 4:15