Buffie Longmire-Avital, assistant professor of psychology, and Virginia Oberle’ 14, assistant director of admissions at Ƶ, conducted an internet-based study to explore the sexual health behaviors of black American emerging adult (ages 18 – 29), heterosexually-active women.
Recruiting women through social networking sites and blog subscribers, Longmire-Avital and Oberle, an Ƶ College Fellow at the time, gathered qualitative data on why this sample of 127 young adult women considered condoms to be their primary form of protection. Three major themes emerged: (a) the perception of condoms as the reliable “standard,” (b) pregnancy prevention, and (c) cost effective/”easily accessible.”
Surprisingly, sexually transmitted infection (STI) protection was not a major reason for use. The article discusses these findings in terms of their public health implication for this seemingly lower-risk population. The article is published in “Women & Health,” which is ranked 7th out of the top 50 journals that focus on women, gender and sexuality studies. The online first article citation is listed below:
Longmire-Avital, B. & Oberle, V. (2015). “Condoms are the standard, right?”: Exploratory study of the reasons for using condoms by Black American emerging adult women. Women & Health, DOI: 10.1080/03630242.2015.1086469.