Explaining unsafe sexual behaviour: Cultural definitions and health in the military

Abstract

This study examined the reasons why military personnel in the Canadian Forces (CF) engaged in risky sexual practices despite their knowledge acquired during educational/informal training programs. Analytic induction and grounded theory were used to generate and test their explanations. Interviews were first conducted with seven key informants and later with 71 members of the CF in order to formulate, test and reshape hypotheses accounting for heterosexual acts without the use of condoms. Findings suggest that unsafe sexual behavior were not viewed as irrational or deviant. Rather, they were considered meaningful for the individual concerned and conformed to certain cultural ideals. Unsafe sexual practices were rooted in localized socially constructed meanings of sex, risk and relationships within the military. The meanings have implications for the ways in which public health information was taken up and used by armed forces personnel, and led individuals to put themselves at risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases in certain social contexts. This relatively new explanation of taking sexual risks forms the basis for programs and interventions of a type not hitherto tried in armed service environments.