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The relationship of sex‐related alcohol expectancies to alcohol consumption and sexual behavior
Author(s) -
LEIGH BARBARA CRITCHLOW
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1990.tb03722.x
Subject(s) - disinhibition , psychology , alcohol , alcohol consumption , affect (linguistics) , sexual behavior , developmental psychology , risky sexual behavior , sexual orientation , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine , psychiatry , sexually active , environmental health , population , biochemistry , chemistry , communication
Summary Recent psychosocial research on alcohol expectancies beliefs about the effects of alcohol on behavior, moods and emotions has suggested that these expectancies mediate not only decisions about drinking but the alcohol effects displayed by those who have been drinking. Results of a study of drinking and sexual behavior showed that individuals of different gender and sexual orientation differed in their beliefs about the effects of alcohol on sexual responding. In addition, expectations of sexual enhancement and disinhibition were related to the initiation of sexual activity and to the proportion of sexual encounters that took place while drinking, and interacted with sex guilt to predict the amount drunk in the most recent sexual encounter. These results suggest that beliefs about the effects of alcohol on sex may affect the characteristics of sexual encounters that involve drinking.