Alcohol plays a significant part in the number of death related to it. The centre disease control reported over 20,000 alcohols related diseases of which most of them are students between the ages of 18-28 years. The abuse of alcohol is a problem that endangers the well being of the abuser and the society. Researchers have attempted to understand effective ways to prevent and treat disorders caused by alcohol, and the factors that initiate drinking problems, and the segregation of drinkers from the society.
Researchers have been studying alcohol focusing mostly on men, but it seems there is a problem with many women being engaged in drinking. Even though, drinking in women is associated with various reasons, unlike men, there are risk factors associated with drinking. These factors that are associated with drinking include the beliefs of the effects of drinking and the consequences, demographic and habits of drinking. The age of women drinkers has also decreased, thus increasing the risk of abusing alcohol and its dependence that result to problematic life. There are many factors that are associated with sexual assaults with alcohol being the most reliable as it is relevant to partners that have just started to date with 50% of date rape incidents (Pumphrey-Gordon & Gross, 2007). Majority of women who have been sexually assaulted had been drinking; it suggested that they portray a cue to aggressive men of their willingness of having sexual activity.
Many women use irrelevant characteristics when they are evaluating their partner’s level of risk, and the likeability of a partner, concludes that there are no risks involved. Alcohol use changes the manner in which women affects their decision making ability (Purdie, et al., 2011). There is a serious risk by engaging in unprotected relations is mostly because of use of alcohol. They take these decisions without considerable attention of health risks. Research has indicated that there is a tendency of risky sexual behavior that results from the use of alcohol.
The extent of alcohol use determines the extent of sexual activity (Griffin, Umstattd, & Usdan, 2010). Women drinking without a prior date have the tendency of increasing indiscriminate partner’s choice, and the inability to discuss potential health risks and pregnancies. Alcohol plays a role which has an influence that affects the decisions made regarding sexual behaviors. Their impairment as a result of alcohol has the tendency of not making safe and thoughtful decisions regarding sex (Davis, Norris, Hessler, Zawacki, Morrison, & George, 2010). The study examined the influence that is associated with alcohol use of women to their sexual intentions, where there is the effect of myopia mostly in situations between inhibition and impelling cues.
The studies show that women in a high conflict situation are likely to convey the cues of sexual behaviors more than they would when sober. This review will analyze the most affected population among women and the theoretical perspectives about this relationship of women and alcohol. This review will explain the causes and the specific areas that need to be explored deeply so as to have a clear understanding of the consequences of alcohol, and its effects in decision making relating to sexual behaviors. These researches were conducted among the women drinker targeting the young women tat range between the ages of 18-28years. The study was conducted among the college students and those who were employed women, as they were most vulnerable to the effects of alcohol use and the resultant to unprotected sexual behavior.
This group was targeted because of the risks that were associated with sexual practices without the proper consideration of using protective measures. The models were investigating the risky, sexual behaviors among the young women in making decisions that are compromised by alcohol related variables, and the general sexual intentions. The study was examining the psychological effect of alcohol for recognition and response to sexual aggression on women. It was used to measure the priority sexual victimization, sex related to alcohol and the general alcohol expectancies (Pumphrey-Gordon & Gross, 2007).
Individuals that often used alcohol were less resistant to refusal of unwanted sexual advances as compared to those who were sober. The high use of alcohol and the risky sexual behaviors among the college students provided the theory of understanding the relation that existed between the risky sexual behaviors and the use of alcohol. The increase of women drinking had resulted in the increase of sexual transmitted diseases that was common to women between the ages of 15-24. Report had also indicated that 3 out 4 college students had more that one partner with most of them not using a condom as a protective measure (Griffin, Umstattd, & Usdan, 2010).
There have a number of researches that have tried to explain the relationship that exists between women and the use of alcohol. Researches have found that women decisions concerning sex are highly influenced by alcohol in such situations of high conflicts. The intoxicated women were seen to be vulnerable to sexual intimacy than sober women because their behavior is easily interoperated as being indicative of sexual interests (Davis, George, & Norris, 2004). They respond passively to advances when they are faced with such situations by instantly dating those who approach them.
Thus, the likelihood of consenting to first advances is high. The presence of alcohol result to increase in women unprotected sexual intentions as it affects their cognitive appraisals of situations their sexual intentions. They are highly affected by the decision making as their primary appraisal of the situation (Davis, Norris, Hessler, Zawacki, Morrison, & George, 2010). The case of myopic effects of the use of alcohol and the decision making that concern sex have the tendency to extend, far from the dangers of the unprotected sex, to sexual assault cases among women. This increased cases of diseases, assault and alcohol abuse need to be addressed through educational approaches in order to adjust or change them (Griffin, Umstattd, & Usdan, 2010).
There are several associations with respect to alcohol expectancies and the drinking habits, and it was discovered that alcohol has the tendency of facilitating social interaction when the levels are high in a social situation (Pumphrey-Gordon & Gross, 2007). The association does mostly disinherit sexual behavior increasing the rate of sexual risk taking. Individual having strong beliefs about sexual disinherit abuse alcohol to potentially create a situation that grants them permission to behave in a sexually manner. The myopic effect will results to capacitiees that are of only perceiving and processing the immediate and silent cues in the environment.
Women with the belief of alcohol impact on sexual behaviors have the feeling of less power to influence the direction of their sexual interactions, and thus they give in to advances of unwanted sex. The research also shows that the more women thought about a sexual intercourse occurrence the more likely they were to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse, and they are not able to request the use of protection. The greater the endorsement of the compelling cognitions made the participants assert the endorsement of using protective measures (Purdie, et al., 2011). There are limitation that are associated with prior research as some conclusions were described to be the working theories and the indeed wanting for additional study on the liaison between alcohol and sexual behaviors (Griffin, Umstattd, & Usdan, 2010).
The study must use the situation where there is no occurrence of conflict and a situation that a conflict exists. The sizes of the sample were small to have an influence on the real society because the participant of the study reported being of a minority and racial status. The study also used underage groups and generalizing the results and thus it failed to study women that could represent the cultural population (Davis, Norris, Hessler, Zawacki, Morrison, & George, 2010). Some earlier research had indicated that alcohol consumption and expectancy did not impair the HIV related risk, but they were seen to have effects on decision making processes.
The direction of future research will need to utilize a role-play task as this will enable participants to be more precise when responding to what is going on and the increasing levels of risks for sexual victimization (Pumphrey-Gordon & Gross, 2007). There ought to be an intervention in an educational style to identify the primary cause and help women in breaking this cycle of destructive behavior (Griffin, Umstattd, & Usdan, 2010). These researches should use a new model while trying to determine the best practices with a tendency to replicating different types of females with a broad range of age. These further researches must study on the levels of dosage that adverse effect on women responses to unwanted sexual advances exploring factor like emotions and the personality of women drinkers.
The study has focused on the role played by alcohol in relation to sexual advancement on women- but the study is incorporating efforts to try and understand the influence of alcohol and to provide measures to resist any form of advancement. The study has also provided innovative ways and intervention that help in understanding the relationships between alcohol and cognitive responses to cues. The studies call for the replication so that they can validate the effectiveness of the theoretically based programs. The programs should focus on the education of women to understand how psychological effects increase sexual risks without the regard of the potential partner sexual risks. They should also focus on the evaluation of the potential partners as women mostly have the tendency of engaging in unprotected sex.
The interventions must address in the prevention programs the role of alcohol sexual risk situations that will help in guiding the young women toward making safer sexual decisions as compared to the decisions they are making at the moment.
