Mobility and its liminal context: Exploring sexual partnering among truck drivers crossing the Southern Brazilian border

Mobile populations, including truck drivers, are at elevated risk of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). However, measures of mobility have been poorly operationalized and little research exists exploring the psychosocial context of mobility and sexual risk taking. A systematic sample of 1775 male truck drivers underwent interview at two customs stations on the Southern Brazilian international border in 2003. The psychosocial effect of being mobile was assessed by clustering truckers based on perceptions of the liminal environment, or being outside of one's normal social environment. The relationship between physical mobility (nights spent at home) and liminal cluster with sexual partnerships was assessed. The clustering procedure yielded three dispositions towards the liminal environment. Compared to truckers in the baseline cluster, those who perceive the environment as (1) very, or (2) moderately permissive had increased odds of reporting a commercial sex partner in the past six months and reported increased numbers of commercial partners. For each week slept at home, the odds of reporting a commercial partner decreased by a factor of 0.73 and the average number of commercial partners decreased by a rate of 0.76. Physical and psychosocial measures of mobility were associated independently with increased partnering on the road. Additional exploration of how the liminal environment shapes mobile populations' sexual decision making and vulnerability to STI is warranted.

'What happens in Tenerife stays in Tenerife': Understanding women's sexual behaviour on holiday

Recent research has drawn attention to the epidemiological importance of international travel in the spread of HIV. Drawing on data generated in focus groups and in depth interviews with women holiday travellers, this paper explores the context of sexual risk behaviour of women on holiday. These data suggest that freedom from the constraints and realities of domestic life is a crucial aspect of the holiday experience. It is argued that holidays are a 'liminoid period' in which norms of behaviour are temporarily abandoned. Furthermore, on holiday, time becomes 'compressed'. Thus relationships follow a similar pattern to that they would at home however over a much shorter time period. Time compression and liminality lead to the rapid establishment of trust in new relationships. This has implications for sexual risk: women have sexual intercourse more quickly with a new partner on holiday than they do at home. Unqualified trust in relative strangers also raises issues for women's general safety.

Casual sex among Australian schoolies

This study of the casual sexual partnering of 570 male and 776 female Australian high school students on a schoolies week vacation expands on earlier research on factors that influence the sexual activity of vacationing youth. Over 60% of the men and nearly 40% of the women who engaged in sexual intercourse during schoolies week did so with a casual partner. We used logistic regression to test an expanded version of Triandis Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (TIB) in explaining casual sexual partnering. Situational experiences (similar to what others have called situational disinhibition), prior sexual experiences and intentions (similar to what others have called spillover) influenced casual sexual partnering. Different causal pathways were demonstrated for men and women.