Presenter: Serena Agterberg − Psychology, Sociology
Faculty Mentor(s): Sanjay Srivastava, Bradley Hughes
(In-Person) Oral Panel—Healthy Considerations, Poster Presentation
To investigate the relationship between personality traits and risky sexual behavior (RSB) with the goal of understanding if students with different levels of stable individual differences may be more or less likely to engage in RSB, we collected data from N= 605 college students. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) and the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS). We estimated correlations of each Big Five domain and facet with overall sexual risk, and four subscales of risk: Sexual Risk Taking, Risky Sex Acts, Impulsive Sexual Behavior, and Intent to Engage in Risky Sexual Behaviors. The results suggest that students with high Extraversion, low Conscientiousness, and low Agreeableness are most likely to engage in overall RSB. Low Agreeableness is the strongest indicator of likelihood of participating in overall RSB, as well as all four subscales of risk. Several BFI-2 facets were significantly related to RSB including high sociability, high assertiveness, low respect, and low compassion. These results indicate that personality may be a valuable asset in identifying students who are more or less likely to engage in RSB.