Survey Finds That Condom Use Among Women College Students Drops in Their First Year on Campus

A new study shows that college women are less likely to use condoms during sexual intercourse as they progress through their first-year in higher education. A survey asked college women how often they used condoms during sex on a scale of one to five with one meaning never and five meaning always. The survey was given to the women each month during their first-year in college.

The results showed that at the onset of their college years, women’s use of condoms was moderate to high. But over the course of the first-year, condom use declined by about 10 percent. Women who were most likely to record a declining use of condoms were those from low-income families, those with lower grades in high school, and those who took part in binge drinking.

The research team was led by Jennifer Walsh, a researcher at the Miriam Hospital Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine in Providence, Rhode Island. Walsh is also a postdoctoral fellow at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She stated, “College women often engage in serial monogamy, resulting in multiple partners during the college years, and they are often unaware of their partners’ risk. This makes continued condom use important for women’s health. Identifying the demographic and behavioral changes associated with decreases in condom use can eventually lead to more targeted educational and intervention efforts.”

The study, published on the website of the Journal of Sex Research, was funded by a grant from the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.