An exploration of adult women's relationships and sexual behaviors

The purpose of this study was to explore the romantic relationships and sexual behaviors and attitudes of educated, adult women. Through intensive semi-structured interviews, these topics were investigated within the contexts of gender, culture, and relationships, and how development within these different contexts influences adult women's sexual decision-making.

Eight women between the ages of thirty-one and fifty were interviewed about their own experiences and their beliefs about the experiences of their female peers and other adult women in general. There has not been much research on unprotected sex and attitudes about and use of condoms with educated, adult women, and this study sought to compare the results of these interviews with available results in the literature from other populations that have been studied.

The results of this study demonstrated that these eight women engage in unprotected sex as, in their opinions, do most adult women. Their reasons for this behavior consisted of such things as the negative connotations of condoms, their trust in their mate's fidelity and honesty about his past, their trust in the choice they have made of a good partner, and precautions that have been taken such as taking a sexual history, to name a few.

What this study illustrated is that these women, like adolescents, college-aged women, and inner-city women, who have been populations of study with these topics, deny their risk of disease from the non-use of condoms. They are at risk for sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, and because of their justifications of their behaviors and the belief that their behaviors are safe regardless of not using condoms, do not see themselves as such.