Introduction: Research demonstrates that most young men report having resisted condom use with their female partners. Condom use resistance (CUR) is associated with stronger negative beliefs about women, greater emotion dysregulation, and specific sexual motives. To date, however, no research has examined how these associations may operate at the event level.
Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to assess the role of adversarial heterosexual beliefs (AHB), emotion modulation difficulties, and sexual motives in young men's CUR engagement through an examination of event-level data.
Method: Men aged 21-30 living in the southwestern United States (N = 420) were screened for eligibility, then attended an in-person baseline survey session. They then completed 32 days of online daily surveys assessing their sexual behaviors including CUR, emotion modulation difficulties, and sexual motives.
Results: A total of 1317 daily diaries from the 291 participants (Mage = 25.15, SDage = 2.75) who engaged in vaginal sex over the 32 days were included in a multilevel logistic regression analysis. Results showed that higher AHB (b = 0.74, p < .01) and daily sex motives for power (b = 0.35, p = < .01) were associated with greater daily CUR likelihood. Daily difficulties in emotion modulation increased daily CUR likelihood among men with higher AHB (b = 0.31, p = .02). Daily sex to cope motives increased daily CUR likelihood among men with lower AHB (b = 0.39, p = .02).
Conclusions: Findings indicate that young men's beliefs about women may serve as a key indicator regarding which men may benefit from CUR prevention efforts. Moreover, interventions that target improvements in emotion regulation skills, as well as address reasons for engaging in sexual activity, may also yield CUR reductions. Given CUR's association with sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies, effective evidence-based CUR interventions are warranted.