“You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students

Ahmad, Marwa; Becerra, Benjamin; Hernandez, Dyanna; Okpala, Paulchris; Olney, Amber; Becerra, Monideepa

doi:10.3390/ijerph17103527

Open AccessArticle

“You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students

by

Marwa Ahmad

¹,

Benjamin Becerra

²,

Dyanna Hernandez

¹,

Paulchris Okpala

^1,3,

Amber Olney

¹ and

Monideepa Becerra

^1,3,*

¹

Department of Health Science & Human Ecology, California State University, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA

²

Department of Information & Decision Sciences, California State University, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA

³

Center for Health Equity, California State University, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(10), 3527; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103527

Submission received: 20 February 2020 / Revised: 10 May 2020 / Accepted: 12 May 2020 / Published: 18 May 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Trends in Health and Disease)

Download Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

In recent years, the act of nonconsensual condom removal, termed stealthing, has become commonly discussed on social and print media; yet, little to no evidence exists on the current knowledge and perception of stealthing among young adults. As such, we assessed what college students know and feel regarding stealthing. We employed an exploratory mixed-method analysis where focus groups were followed by a quantitative survey. A qualitative assessment was conducted using grounded theory analyses and questions for a quantitative survey were developed based on emergent themes from focus groups. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and bivariate analyses with alpha less than 0.05 to denote significance. Though limited knowledge exists, participants felt that stealthing was a violation of their privacy, trust, sexual consent, and their ability to make a health decision, and should be considered an assault. Participants noted stealthing may have become acceptable due to its popularity in social media and young adult culture, especially porn. We also found sex differences in the perception of stealthing being considered a sexual assault with lower rates among males as compared to females. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for health educators to assess the prevalence of such a behavior among college students and policy makers to assess the legal implications of nonconsensual condom removal.

Keywords: sexual consent; college students; condom; privacy; sexually transmitted diseases; infections

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Ahmad, M.; Becerra, B.; Hernandez, D.; Okpala, P.; Olney, A.; Becerra, M. “You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 3527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103527

AMA Style

Ahmad M, Becerra B, Hernandez D, Okpala P, Olney A, Becerra M. “You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(10):3527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103527

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmad, Marwa, Benjamin Becerra, Dyanna Hernandez, Paulchris Okpala, Amber Olney, and Monideepa Becerra. 2020. "“You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 10: 3527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103527

APA Style

Ahmad, M., Becerra, B., Hernandez, D., Okpala, P., Olney, A., & Becerra, M. (2020). “You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(10), 3527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103527

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

“You Do It without Their Knowledge.” Assessing Knowledge and Perception of Stealthing among College Students

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI