Sexual Advice-Seeking in Friendships

Decisions about sexual practices are often informed by others friends (“advisers”). This study extended advice response theory (ART; MacGeorge, Feng, &amp; Guntzviller, 2016) to consider an important relational and public health issue–sexual advice seeking. Sexual advice-recipients (<i>N </i>= 273) were surveyed about their evaluation of face concerns, advisor characteristics, message features, and advice outcomes. Results indicated that sexual advice-recipients evaluated an advisor’s message content based on their perceptions of relational closeness, the quality of the message, and being encouraged to use condoms. Positive face was associated with advisor characteristics, advice quality, and messages that encouraged condom use. As a group, message features (i.e., sexual advice-seeking and message politeness) positively mediated the association between advisor characteristics and advice outcomes; indicating that advice-recipients carefully scrutinize the content of these messages. Advice-recipients reported to disclose sexual information when evaluating the message content and their own engagement in risky sexual behaviors, with quality advice encouraging condom use. Implications for sexual advice-seeking and ART are discussed.人们在做出性行为相关决策时，往往会参考朋友（即"咨询顾问"）的意见。本研究将咨询回应理论（Advice Response Theory, ART；MacGeorge、Feng与Guntzviller，2016）拓展应用于一个兼具关系与公共健康重要性的议题——性健康咨询寻求行为。本研究针对样本量N=273的性健康咨询接收者开展问卷调查，调研内容涵盖其对面子担忧、顾问特征、信息特征及咨询结果的评价。研究结果显示，性健康咨询接收者会基于自身对关系亲密度的感知、咨询信息质量以及是否被鼓励使用安全套，来评估顾问的信息内容。正面面子与顾问特征、咨询质量以及鼓励使用安全套的信息呈显著相关。整体而言，信息特征（即性健康咨询寻求行为与信息礼貌程度）在顾问特征与咨询结果之间发挥了正向中介作用，这表明咨询接收者会仔细审视此类信息的内容。咨询接收者表示，在评估信息内容与自身高危性行为参与情况时，他们会披露性相关信息；而高质量的咨询建议会鼓励使用安全套。本研究最后讨论了性健康咨询寻求行为与咨询回应理论的研究启示。