Risky Sex
When was the last time you did something risky? College students are known risk takers (Cline, R.J. and Sheer, V.C., 1994). Most of us do risky things all the time, but usually nothing that is extremely dangerous to our health. For example, how often do you play Russian roulette?
Most college students would answer "never" to this question because it seems absurd to play a game where you are risking your life. Then these same students go out on the weekend and many engage in risky sexual behavior, which is commonly defined as not consistently using condoms and having multiple partners. This behavior carries much of the same risk as Russian roulette. Why do they do this? And, how common is it?
Sex in College
Most college students (75%-85%) are sexually active; many have multiple sexual partners, and few students (20% or less) report using condoms consistently (Cline and Sheer, 1994). Add that to the fact that the prevalence of STDs among sexually active adolescents (yes, that includes college students) has been estimated at 30% (Crawford and Desiderato, 1995), and you can see that college is a breeding ground for contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Do you think you are safe?
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