1. Sexual Attitudes Predicting Sexual
Behavior: Does Identity Confusion
Play a Role?
Authors: Dr. Manfred van Dulmen,
Shannon Claxton, Elizabeth Baker,
Haylee DeLuca,
Tom Harrington, and Amanda
Lamadanie
Department of Psychological Sciences
Kent State University

2. Attitudes predict behavior – nothing new.

3. What do we know about attitudes
and behavior?”
• Triandis’ Theory of Interpersonal
Behavior : A variety of factors influence one’s
attitudes, which in turn predict behavior (e.g.,
Triandis, 1977, 1989).
• Empirical findings show an association between
sexual attitudes and casual sex (Levinson,
Jaccard, & Beamer 1995; Maticka Tyndale,‐
Herold, & Mewhinney, 1998).

4. CSREs, Emerging Adulthood, Identity Confusion
• Casual sexual relationships and
experiences (CSREs): sexual behavior
occurring outside of the context of a committed
relationship (Claxton & van Dulmen, 2013).
• Approximately 60-80% of North American
college students have engaged in a CSRE
(Garcia, Reiber, Massey, & Merriwehter, 2012).

5. CSREs, Emerging Adulthood, Identity Confusion
• A time period between 18-29 years of age
• This period is characterized by identity
development and exploration (Arnett, 2000).
• Exploration in relationships

6. CSREs, Emerging Adulthood, Identity Confusion
Identity confusion status – whether or not one has
confusion with identity – might impact the
relationship between attitudes and behavior.

7. Current Study
Purpose Intended Benefits
• To explore the relationship
between sexual attitudes and
engaging in a CSRE
• To see if identity confusion
moderates the relationship
between sexual attitudes and
engaging in CSREs.
• Insight into who is more likely
to engage in CSREs and under
what conditions this behavior
occurs
• Informing both practitioners
and individuals
• Adding to the current scientific
understanding of these
phenomena

8. Participants, Procedure, Measures

9. Participants
• Sample size: n = 383.
• Age range: 17.97 to 29.98 years
• Mean age: 23.02
• The majority of the sample was Caucasian
(80.94 %), female (66.45%), and
heterosexual (88.25 %).

10. Procedure
Baseline:
Sexual attitudes
Identity confusion
Demographics
1 week
Daily Diary - Friday
Sexual behavior
Daily Diary - Saturday
Sexual behavior
Daily Diary - Thursday
Sexual behavior
Daily Diary - Sunday
Sexual behavior
• Two waves of data from a larger study
designed to examine CSREs around an
alcohol-based event (Halloween).

11. Measures: Permissive Sexual Attitudes
• 10 item permissiveness subscale of the Brief
Sexual Attitudes Questionnaire (Hendrick,
Hendrick, & Reich, 2006).
• Good internal consistency (α = .94).

12. Measures: Permissive Sexual Attitudes
Example items (rated on a 5-point Likert scale):
• “Casual sex is acceptable”
• “It is possible to enjoy sex with a person and not like that
person very much.”
• “It is okay for sex to be just good physical release.”

13. Measures: Identity Confusion
• 12 item identity confusion subscale of the
Erikson’s Psycho-Social Index (Rosenthal,
Gurney, & Moore, 1981).
• Good internal consistency (α = .88).

14. Measures: Identity Confusion
Example items (rated on a 5-point Likert scale):
• “I change my opinion of myself a lot.”
• “I know what kind of person I am.”
• “The important things in life are clear to me.”

15. Measures: Sexual Behavior
• One dichotomous item: “Did you engage in
any sexual behaviors?”
This item was asked daily as a part of the daily diary portion of the
study.
• Examples of sexual behavior:
Oral sex, anal sex, threesome, kissing, vaginal intercourse

17. Results
• Results from the logistic regression indicated that
permissive sexual attitudes increased the probability of
engaging in a CSRE (B = 0.43, SE = 0.11, eB
= 1.54, p
= 0.0001).
• The odds of engaging in a CSRE increased by a factor of
1.54 (54%) for every 1 point increase (5-point scale) in
permissive sexual attitudes.

18. Findings in Terms of Our Hypotheses
• There will be a positive relationship between the
permissiveness of sexual attitudes and engaging in a
CSRE.
 We were able to support this claim.
• Identity confusion will moderate the relationship
between sexual attitudes and engagement in a CSRE.
 We were unable to support this claim .

19. Interpretation and Future Directions

20. Discussion:
Interpretation and Future Directions
• We found a relationship between sexual attitudes and
sexual behavior, which confirms past research findings.
• Identity confusion did not predict, or moderate, this
relationship.

21. Discussion:
Interpretation and Future Directions
• External factors may carry more weight than internal
ones, such as identity confusion.
• Research has shown that the perception of peer behavior is
more likely to affect one’s decision to engage in a CSRE
than one’s personal norms (Maticka Tyndale, Herold, &‐
Mewhinney1998).

22. Discussion:
Interpretation and Future Directions
Future research should continue to examine additional
factors that may impact the relationship between sexual
attitudes and engaging in CSREs.

23. Questions? Reflections?
(We love questions)

24. Thank you for your kind attention
