Sources of Sexual and Romantic Education: Associations with Sexual Minority Men’s Sexual Experiences and Romantic Relationship Quality

<p>Individuals with sexual minority identities experience a variety of poorer mental and physical health outcomes, including those related to sexual and romantic quality, relative to heterosexual individuals (Beaulieu et al., 2017; CDC, 2021). These poorer romantic, sexual, and psychological outcomes may be attributable in part to lacking access to affirmative and relevant modeling of sexual minority experiences, such as through sex education (Gillespie et al., 2022; Keiser et al., 2019). This study aimed to understand how sexual minority men learn – in ways potentially both helpful and unhelpful – about romantic relationships and sexual activity, and how these experiences are related to their romantic and sexual behaviors. Three hundred and ten cisgender sexual minority men ages 18 to 75 were surveyed regarding their experiences learning about sex and romantic relationships, as well as their current functioning in sexual and romantic contexts and their explicit and implicit biases regarding sexual orientation. Partial support was found for the general hypothesis that current pornography viewing behaviors, as well as affirming and helpful experiences learning about sex and romantic relationships, would be associated with sexual and romantic outcomes. Pornography viewing and quality of one’s learning experiences were positively and negatively associated with different types of sexual consent behaviors, involvement in sexual violence, and relationship satisfaction. Finally, implicit and explicit bias were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction, but not quality of learning experiences.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year

2024

Author dc:creator

• Huntington, Charlie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Galena Rhoades
• E. Paige Lloyd
• Howard Markman
• Heidi Vuletich
• Nicholas Perry

• Pornography
• Romantic relationships
• Sex education
• Sexual minority men
• Clinical Psychology
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Social Psychology

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

English (eng)

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2438

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-3426