Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Apr 15;14(1):8717. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58389-w.
Work shows that sexually-diverse individuals face high rates of early life adversity and in turn increased engagement in behavioral outcomes traditionally associated with adversity, such as sexual risk taking. Recent theoretical work suggests that these associations may be attributable to heightened sexual reward sensitivity among adversity-exposed women. We aimed to test these claims using a combination of self-report and EEG measures to test the relationship between early adversity, sexual reward sensitivity (both self-reported and EEG measured) and sexual risk taking in a sexually diverse sample of cis-gender women (N = 208) (Mage = 27.17, SD = 6.36). Results showed that childhood SES predicted self-reported sexual reward sensitivity which in turn predicted numbers of male and female sexual partners. In contrast we found that perceived childhood unpredictability predicted neurobiological sexual reward sensitivity as measured by EEG which in turn predicted male sexual partner number. The results presented here provide support for the notion that heightened sexual reward sensitivity may be a pathway through which early life adversity augments future sexual behavior, and underscores the importance of including greater attention to the dynamics of pleasure and reward in sexual health promotion.
研究表明，性少数群体在早年生活中面临着更高的逆境发生率，因此更倾向于从事传统上与逆境相关的行为结果，如性行为风险。最近的理论工作表明，这些关联可能归因于逆境暴露的女性中更高的性奖励敏感性。我们旨在使用自我报告和 EEG 测量相结合的方法，在一个跨性别女性的性多样化样本中测试早期逆境、性奖励敏感性（自我报告和 EEG 测量）与性行为风险之间的关系（N=208）（Mage=27.17，SD=6.36）。结果表明，儿童时期的社会经济地位预测了自我报告的性奖励敏感性，而性奖励敏感性反过来又预测了男性和女性性伴侣的数量。相比之下，我们发现感知到的童年不可预测性预测了 EEG 测量的神经生物学性奖励敏感性，而性奖励敏感性反过来又预测了男性性伴侣的数量。这里呈现的结果为性奖励敏感性增强可能是早期逆境增加未来性行为的途径这一观点提供了支持，并强调了在性健康促进中更关注愉悦和奖励的动态的重要性。
