Hooking up: Attitudes that inform decision making around casual sex behavior within a college population

Background: Hook up culture has become widely discussed within the public health community. To adequately address public health needs related to hook up behaviors, research should focus on understanding hook ups on the intrapersonal level. This research uses a bargaining theory approach to investigate what attitudes inform college age students' decision-making around hooking up. Methods: Data for this research comes from an online elicitation survey, informed by the Reasoned Action Approach. A total of 235 participants (44 men and 190 women)(Mean age=24.4) were recruited through snowball sampling. The vast majority of respondents identified as heterosexual 88.6% (N=203), white 83.3% (N=189), and single 86% (N=202). After being coded and transferred into SPSS, qualitative answers were analyzed. Results: Of participants, 68.9% of reported that they felt hooking up was a normal activity for college students, while only 3.2% disagreed. The most commonly seen advantages to a hook were: starting a new relationship (29.7%), pleasure (23.3%), fun (18.1%), and because they don't want commitment (13.8%). Knowing the partner and alcohol helped facilitate hook ups. Disadvantages were seen as: disease (51.3%), pregnancy (29.7%), bad reputation (15.5%), and emotional hurt (9.5%). Further analysis will serve to stratify by gender and compare attitudes between groups. Conclusion: The public health conversation around hook up culture should incorporate a view of agency in which an individual weighs the advantages and disadvantages when engaging in decision-making. Most participants were aware of the public health risks associated with hook ups, but also saw multiple benefits.