HPRHealth Psychology ResearchTBA2420-8124Health Psychology Research10.4081/hpr.2014.1547GeneralThe effect of sexual experience  on the social representation of  sex in Portuguese young adultshttps://healthpr.org/journal/HPR/2/2/10.4081/hpr.2014.1547GomesAlexandra,NunesCristina2014222014-04-26This study aimed to observe the effect of sexual experience on the social representa tion of sex in Portuguese young adults. According to social representation theory, the central core of the social representation should be the same in all individuals that share a common social ground, however dif ferences should be found in the peripheral system. It was used a free evocation task to assess the social representation of sex in Portuguese individuals aging between 18 and 25 years old. Nine hundred and sixty individ uals were grouped by their sexual experience and condom use habits. A prototypical analy sis was conducted to assess the structure of the social representation and statistical dif ferences were analyzed using the qui-square independency test to search for an associa tion between the structure and the group evoking it. The results supported the hypoth esis of a common central core for all groups that shows a romanticized vision of sex. The differences found in the peripheral system suggest that sexual experience affects the representation of sex in a way that seems clearer to these individuals the necessity of protection when it comes to sex.social representations, condom use, prototypical analysis

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