Through a hole in the wall: Setting and interaction in sex-on-premises venues

Casual and anonymous sex is available at low cost to homosexually active men in venues such as saunas, sex clubs and backrooms. In order to investigate the relationship between setting and sexual practice, transcripts from interviews with 30 gay men in Sydney were analyzed thematically, taking a situational interactionist approach which focused on practice. Men's reasons for going to sex venues, and for their choice of venue (gay/non-gay, saunas/backrooms), are explored. Physical features (such as steps, platforms, dark spaces, steam rooms, cubicles and glory holes) encourage or enable particular practices, such as fellatio or group sex. Interactional patterns include unspoken rules of venue deportment (e.g. silence) and vary with stages of cruising and how crowded the space is. Patrons consider venues in terms of the other men, and are generally unaware of the conscious intentions of the designers. Yet the venues are commercial spaces and share features with airports, supermarkets, railway stations, hotels and fast food restaurants. Venue layout deliberately disrupts patterns of social interaction which prevent sex from happening in other public places. The layout also shapes the sex that occurs

Can we generalise to other young people from studies of sexual risk behaviour among university students?

Objective: Many studies of sexual behaviour and condom use are based on data collected from university students. The aim of this paper is to determine whether first-year university students and their same-age peers have different patterns of sexual behaviour. Methods: Computer-assisted telephone interviews were completed by a representative sample of 19,307 Australian men and women aged 16-59 years (response rate 73.1%), 920 of whom were aged 17-19 years. Comparisons were made between reports of sexual risk behaviours from first-year university students and reports of the same behaviours from their same-age peers. Results: For female respondents, there were few differences in the sexual behaviour of first-year university students and their same-aged peers. For male respondents, there were some significant differences in the sexual behaviour of first-year university students and their same-aged peers and also different patterns of correlation between measures of sexual behaviour. Socio-demographic characteristics were related to whether 17-19 year-old respondents were first-year university students or engaged in other activities. Conclusions: The findings of studies of the sexual behaviour of university undergraduates should only be generalised to other groups with caution. The socio-demographic characteristics of the student population of a particular institution must be taken into account before generalisation to the broader population can safely be made from studies of single universities

The Australian longitudinal study of health and relationships

Background: Ensuring the sexual and reproductive health of the population is essential for the wellbeing of a nation. At least three aspects of sexual and reproductive health are among the key policy issues for present Australian governments: maintaining and increasing the birth rate; reducing the abortion rate; and preventing and controlling Chlamydia infections. The overall aim of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships is to document the natural history of the sexual and reproductive health of the Australian adult population. Methods/design: A nationally representative sample of Australian adults 16-64 years of age was selected in a two-phase process in 2004-2005. Eligible households were identified through random digit dialling. We used separate sampling frames for men and women; where there was more than one eligible person in a household the participant was selected randomly. Participants completed a computer-assisted telephone interview that typically took approximately 25 minutes to complete. The response rate was 56%. A total of 8,656 people were interviewed, of whom 95% (8243) agreed to be contacted again 12 months later. Of those, approximately 82% have been re-contacted and re- interviewed in 2006-07 (Wave Two), with 99% of those agreeing to be contacted again for Wave Three. Discussion: ALSHR represents a significant advance for research on the linked topics of sexual and reproductive health. Its strengths include the large sample size, the inclusion of men as well as women, and the wide age range of the participants