Table 3.
Themes and axial codes per participant for excerpts referencing sexual decision making
| Theme | Participants % (n) |
Excerpts (M excerpts per participant) |
|---|---|---|
| Reasons to have sex | ||
| Personal Reasons | ||
| Horny/temptation | 61% (46) | 49 (1.1) |
| Physical pleasure | 28% (21) | 23 (1.1) |
| Curiosity/Experience | 28% (21) | 25 (1.2) |
| Interpersonal Reasons | ||
| To show love | 28% (21) | 23 (1.1) |
| Loneliness/make connection | 9% (7) | 7 (1.1) |
| Feels “right”/”right” guy | 8% (6) | 6 (1.1) |
| Sociocultural Reasons | ||
| Types of Pressure | 81% (61) | 92 (1.5) |
| Reasons not to have sex | ||
| Personal Reasons | ||
| Specialness* | 29% (22) | 30 (1.4) |
| Fear of pain | 31% (23) | 30 (1.3) |
| “Not ready”* | 19% (14) | 17 (1.2) |
| Moral/Ethical | 16% (12) | 14 (1.2) |
| Because it will be my “First Time”* | 13% (10) | 12 (1.2) |
| Interpersonal Reasons | ||
| Decreases disease risk | 55% (41) | 44 (1.1) |
| Waiting for the “right” guy | 32% (24) | 35 (1.5) |
| Waiting for love* | 15% (11) | 15 (1.4) |
| Relationship isn’t ready | 17% (13) | 14 (1.1) |
| Reasons to stop having sex | ||
| Personal Reasons | ||
| No interest | 17% (13) | 13 (1.1) |
| For physical rest | 7% (5) | 5 (1.1) |
| Too busy/focusing on other things | 7% (5) | 5 (1.1) |
| Interpersonal Reasons | ||
| Scarcity of partners | 11% (8) | 8 (1.1) |
| To improve relationship | 7% (5) | 6 (1.2) |
| To stop having “unhealthy” sex | 7% (5) | 5 (1.0) |
Note. For the number of participants, the number in parentheses is the percentage who endorsed a certain subtheme out of all participants. For the number of excerpts, the number in parentheses is the average number of excerpts provided per participant. Codes applied to ≤5 excerpts were removed from analysis. Only sexually experienced participants were asked about reasons to stop having sex.
*
Indicates responses only given by sexually inexperienced participants.