Culture

Sex & Health : Drinking from bottles doesn’t always end with heading to bedrooms

Sex and alcohol. These two things seem almost synonymous on college campuses. But maybe they’re not.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo are trying to dispel the stereotype that alcohol and sex on university campuses are related. They published a study earlier this month that focused on 154 heavy-drinking college students whose sexual behavior put them at risk for HIV infection and other STDs.

They found that when put through alcohol-focused motivational counseling, the students changed drinking habits, but their sexual behavior did not. The number of sexual partners they had didn’t decrease, and they did not use protection more often.

The researchers found this surprising. Students here don’t.

Although students agree there is a connection between alcohol and sex, they believe the two do not exclusively go hand in hand.



Samantha Hartley, a senior psychology major with a minor in addiction studies, said this news from UB doesn’t shock her in the least bit.

‘When people are in college, they don’t care about how many people they’re having sex with or how casual it is,’ she said.

College is a time for experimentation, she added. The amount someone is drinking doesn’t change that.

‘There is no causation between alcohol consumption and sexual activity,’ said Gabe Raskas, a senior philosophy major. ‘Sex is going to happen, but alcohol doesn’t cause sex.’

Joseph Fanelli, Syracuse University professor of human sexuality, disagrees.

‘Having been on campus for over 30 years, I’m hard-pressed not to see that drinking and sex is like pouring gasoline on a fire,’ he said in an email, adding that hookups on campus tend to be unplanned and fueled by alcohol.

After drinking alcohol, 1 in 4 16- to 24-year-olds have had unprotected sex, while 1 in 5 have had sex they regretted. One in 10 can’t remember if he or she had sex the night before, said Fanelli, citing a 154-student sample from a 28,000-student population.

Looking at SU student behavior, it’s easy to assume that drinking and sex go hand in hand. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve overheard conversations about drunken hookups. 

But think about it: If alcohol is subtracted from the mixture, people are not going to stop having sex.

‘Humans are sexual beings,’ Raskas said.

Whether alcohol is in the mix or not, humans are inclined to engage in sexual activities. A study from the University of Texas found there are 237 reasons that people have sex. There was only one reason that involved drinking.

Despite this, both Hartley and Raskas agree that alcohol and sex are sometimes related. They both acknowledged that someone is more likely to engage in sexual activity with multiple partners after the consumption of alcohol.

Kurt Dermen, the lead investigator of the UB study, said via email that the study doesn’t state that alcohol intoxication never leads people to make decisions they later regret —and I agree.

‘This study suggests that just reducing overall levels of alcohol use in a group of students doesn’t lead to changes in that group’s overall levels of risky sexual behavior,’ Dermen said. ‘Changes in sexual behavior, when they happen, seem to result from a variety of influences that have little to do with drinking.’

Rita Kokshanian is a senior magazine journalism major. Her column appears every Thursday. She can be reached at rhkoksha@syr.edu





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