Wsw dating app

Geosocial networking apps (GSN; e.g., Tinder, Grindr) have rapidly increased in popularity, showing associations with greater sexual risk-taking. This study sought to distinguish between risks associated with intensive partner-seeking (i.e., individuals seeking out casual sex frequently across many venues) and risks associated with specific venues (e.g., GSNs, dating websites, offline activities). Expanding upon a literature predominantly focused on the population of men who have sex with men (MSM), we recruited a broader range of sexual identities. A convenience sample of 3180 participants from the U.S. (18–75 years old, 69% female, 75% Caucasian, 68% heterosexual) completed an anonymous, cross-sectional online survey. Logistic regressions yielded adjusted odds ratios highlighting the unique links between each predictor and sexual risk-taking. MSM/WSW indicators, quantity of partner-seeking and specific venues—particularly GSN use—emerged as robust predictors of sexual risk, increasing the odds of reporting all six outcomes examined: (1) having three or more sex partners in the last year, (2) having hookups in the last 2 months, (3) having hookups involving alcohol or (4) drug use, (5) condomless sexual activity with new partners in the last 2 months, and (6) ever having had a sexually transmitted infection. Although a large portion of risk originated from the proclivities of the individuals seeking casual sex, both online and offline methods of partner-seeking also contributed significant risk, suggesting that specific venues like GSN apps could be used as methods of targeting higher-risk behaviors. The results also highlight the importance of moving beyond MSM when addressing sexual risk.

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This project was funded by a grant internal to the University of Rochester Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology. This material was based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1419118. Writing of this manuscript was supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, Department of Veterans Affairs. We thank the study participants for supporting this work with their time and effort. We also acknowledge the instrumental support given by ResearchMatch in recruiting our sample. ResearchMatch is a national health volunteer registry created by several academic institutions and supported by the US National Institutes of Health as part of the Clinical Translational Science Award program.

Affiliations

1. Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, 462 Meliora Hall, RC Box 270266, Rochester, NY, 14627-0266, USA

   Ronald D. Rogge & Dev Crasta

2. Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

   Nicole Legate

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald D. Rogge.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (University of Rochester Research Subjects Review Board; Protocol# RSRB00061659) and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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