Marijuana, binge drinking factors for risky sexual behaviors among college students: study

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The saying "sex, drugs, and rock & roll" may be closer to real life than most may think, and not just for rock stars, but for college students, a new study reveals. Researchers from Oregon State University found that undergraduate college students were more likely to participate in sexual intercourse on days when they have consumed alcohol or used marijuana rather than days that they don't, EurekAlert reports.

The study published in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that being in a serious dating relationship and binge drinking were factors that contributed to less condom use, heightening the risk for sexually-transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies in these students.

Researchers studied the behavior of 284 college students in terms of alcohol, marijuana use, and sex. These students reported their activities related to these factors for 25 consecutive days. The researchers included marijuana use specifically because Oregon has legalized its recreational use.

The study's lead author and an associate professor in the School of Psychological Science at OSU, David Kerr explained that marijuana and alcohol affect the brain in different ways and that additional research should be undertaken to determine how it affects risk-taking decision making.

"People may judge risks, such as whether they will regret having sex or whether they should use a condom, differently when they are drunk," Kerr explained.

He added that based on the results, "College students were more likely to have sex on days they used marijuana, but we didn't find a connection between marijuana use and poor condom use."

The researchers also compared the sexual behavior of college students who were not in a relationship against those who were, and found that "Students in serious relationships had almost 90 percent of the sex reported in our study. But serious partners used a condom only a third of the time, compared to about half the time among single students. More frequent sex plus less protection equals higher risk."

Kerr noted how often those who were in a relationship were less responsible in using condoms and protecting themselves against any sexually-transmitted diseases.

According to The Huffington Post, a study conducted by Jonathan Marc Bearak at New York University in 2014 revealed that unprotected sex occurs among women 7 percent of the time when they are freshmen and goes up to 16% when they are seniors, while for men, the occurrence is 6 to 15 percent, respectively.

Bearak also finds that there are three groups of college graduates. He noted, "Those who graduate college without ever having sex, those who have sex only in relationships, and those who (also) have casual sex. Most students fall into the latter category (having casual sex)."

Bearak's study also reveals that the probability of having sex increases as the student progresses throughout the years, confirming the "hook-up culture" among college students.