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Although there are many theoretical models that predict safer sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults, very few of these models actually describe factors that influence decisions at the moment of deciding to engage in safer or risky behaviors. Two factors that may influence decisions in the moment are temperament and context. Temperament represents an individuals’ biological ability to regulate emotion; While context takes in environmental influences that occur during the sexual encounter (e.g., type of place, partner). The purpose of this experiment is to explore the contribution of temperament on decisions in a safer or risky context. The sample consisted of 152 college students from a large Midwestern university. Data were collected by giving participants vignettes, created from an earlier study, which should engender safer and risky sexual behaviors. After reading each vignette, participants complete a questionnaire that ascertains which sexual behaviors they would expect to occur. They also complete Derryberry and Rothbart’s (1988) measure of temperament. Interestingly, the components of temperament were not related to risky sexual activities in either context. Temperament did not predict riskier sexual activities in either the risky context (R2 = -.009, p=.59) or in the safer context (R2 = -.006, p=.52). Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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