Oral presentation for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Annual Meeting 2017.

1. Motivations of Sexual Minority Girls
for Sex with Females and Males
Carol Goodenow, Michele Ybarra, Elizabeth Saewyc,
Margaret Rosario, Myeshia Price-Feeney,
& Tonya Prescott
Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality
Atlanta, GA November 11, 2017

2. Research Questions
What are the major motivations/reasons that
sexual minority adolescent girls have for
having sex, or thinking they might have sex?
Do motivations differ by sex/gender of real or
potential sexual partners?

3. Girl to Girl Project, Baseline
Survey
Purpose of project
Recruitment
Baseline survey

4. Participant Demographics (N=357)
Age = Range 13-18, average 16.05 years
Race = 75.1% White
6.2% Black
2.8% Asian
0.8% American Indian/Alaska Native
3.1% Some other race
12.0% More than one race
Hispanic/Latina =13.8%

5. Participant Demographics
(N=357)
Residence: 25.2% Urban
44.8% Suburban
29.7% Small town or rural
Mother’s education: 26.3% HS or less
Father’s education: 36.7% HS or less

6. Measures of sexual
orientation
Attraction
Identity
Behavior

7. Attraction (1-5 scale)
 Half were completely (24.9%) or mostly
(24.9%) sexually attracted to girls.
 43.4% were attracted to both girls and guys.
 6.7% were mostly or only attracted to guys or
were nor sure or questioning.
 Average attraction score was 2.27

8. Identity
 10 different identity labels were presented;
participants could choose all that applied
 Asexual, bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, not
sure, pansexual, queer, questioning, and other
 Bisexual most common (52.9%), followed
by Lesbian (44.5%), Queer (32.8%) and
Pansexual (31.9%)
 Average was 2.3 identity labels

9. Behavior
 Participants were asked whether they had
ever engaged in a specific explicit sexual
behaviors with a female or male
 And asked how many female sexual partners
they had had (or person with a vagina) and
how many male partners (or person with a
penis)

10. Sexual Experience of
Participants
142 (40.1%) with no sexual partners
75 ( 21.2%) with only female partners
40 (11.3%) with only male partners
97 (27.4%) with both female and male
partners

11. Reasons participants had had sex
I was in love
I felt horny
I was curious
Pressure from family or friends
Pressure from partner
It felt unsafe to say no

12. Reasons participants had
sex
To check if I was/am LGB
To prove that I’m LGB
To pass as straight (sex with males only)
I thought sex would feel good
I was drunk or high

13. Reasons for Sex
(Actual)
Rank
With Girls
(N=172)
With Guys
(N = 137)
I felt horny 1 86 % 79 %
Sex would feel good 2 84 % 71 %
I was in love 3 81 % 66 %
Was curious 4 36 % 35 %
Was drunk or high 24 % 31 %
Partner pressure 12 % 31 %
To check if I’m LGB 11 % 5 %
To prove I’m LGB 9 % 1 %
Family/peer pressure 2 % 7 %
Felt unsafe to say no 2 % 15 %

14. Reasons of Participants
with both M & F
partners
With Girls %
N=97
With Guys
%
I felt horny 1 87 77 *
Sex would feel good 2 85 71 *
I was in love 3 76 62 *
Was curious 4 40 37 ns
Was drunk or high 5 23 27 ns
To check if I’m LGB 17 5**
Partner pressure 12 30**
Family/peer pressure 2 7 ns
Felt unsafe to say no 1 16***

15. Participants who had not had sex
with female and/or male partners
were asked why they might
171 (96%) of participants with no
previous female partners gave
reasons why they might.
116 (67%) with no previous male
partners gave reasons why they
might.

16. Possible/hypothetical
reasons for sex
With Girls %
(N=171)
With Guys
%
(N = 116)
I might be in love 1 93 77
I might feel horny 2 88 72
Sex might feel good 3 75 64
I might be curious 4 61 62
To check if I’m LGB 29 16
I might be drunk/high 29 38
To prove I’m LGB 20 7
Partner pressure 16 26
Might be unsafe to say no 5 22
Family/peer pressure 2 9

17. Reasons for sex among
inexperienced
participants
With Girls %
(N=86)
With Guys %
I might be in love 1 97 79***
I might feel horny 2 91 74***
Sex might feel good 3 79 65 **
I might be curious 4 64 62 ns
To check if I’m LGB 28 13 *
I might be drunk/high 28 35 ns
To prove I’m LGB 21 5 ***
Partner pressure 20 30 *
Might be unsafe to say no 6 26***

18. Among sexual minority girls
-
Physical desire and love are the predominant
reasons for sex with other girls and with guys – both
actually and hypothetically.
These motives are mentioned significantly more often
for sex with girls than with guys
Curiosity and identity exploration/confirmation are
also significant motives
Defensive motives for sex (pressure, unsafe, passing
as straight) were mentioned by a substantial minority
of participants, especially for sex with guys.

19. Questions? Comments?
Thank You.
Carol Goodenow, Ph.D.
carol.goodenow@gmail.com
For more information, please contact Michele Ybarra at michele@innovativepublichealth.org