College of General Studies sophomore Naintara Aditya said being a freshman girl can be intimidating. New environments with fewer restrictions can lead to impaired judgment – including when it comes to sexual activity.
“I don’t think condoms and protection are the number one things on people’s minds,” she said.
Freshman girls use condoms less frequently during sex over the course of their first academic year, according to a study published Tuesday by the Miriam Hospital in Providence.
Researchers from the hospital’s Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, affiliated with Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, asked 279 freshmen girls to keep monthly reports of their condom use. They also asked questions about the participants’ high school GPA, religious beliefs, parents’ education levels and alcohol and drug use starting in the month before entering college.
The results of the study, which was released online in January, link less condom use to young women who binge drink, receive low a high school GPA or come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Patricia Rieker, a visiting professor in sociology at Boston University, said she finds the study’s results to be disturbing.
“It’s critical that young women practice safe sex given the exposure that they could have to very serious kinds of sexually transmitted diseases,” Rieker, who specializes in gender and health issues, said.
The study’s results discuss young women’s use of condoms as related to their sexual encounters. Condoms were not used with all types of partners, even in romantic relationships.
“It probably has something to do with gender relations and the power relationships,” Rieker said. “Wanting to trust the male and wanting to please the male and so theoretically it indicates to me that women are not exercising any kind of autonomy and a sense of self-determination by giving up the request to have safe sex.”
BU students said the trend might be prevalent among the women on campus.
Taylor Stevens, a CGS freshman, said she thinks BU would not stand out from any other college in terms of the how many girls practice unsafe sex.
“I’m pretty sure it’s at all colleges that this happens,” she said. “BU, it’s a big school and there are a lot of different people and a lot of girls willing, I guess.”
Chip Foarde, a freshman in CGS, said he has not heard of freshmen girls at BU having unprotected sex, but that he would not be surprised if he did. He noted the higher female-to-male ratio as a factor that is unique to BU, which could create pressure for girls to date and have sex.
“It’s a lot harder for girls because they feel as though they don’t have many options,” he said.
School of Education sophomore Colin O’Neil said the study’s results are probably part of a national trend.
“I always think of the condom as the guy’s responsibility, but obviously it’s a responsibility on both parts,” he said. “There’s a lack of sex education in public school systems, which I think could be part of the issue.”
Aditya said she and her friends do not fit within the party-girl persona that is associated with the study’s conclusions.
“I have a boyfriend, so I’m not going out and hooking up with a bunch of guys,” she said. “A lot of my friends don’t have boyfriends, and they hook up once in a while, but it’s not like an every night or weekend type of thing.”
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