Sammanfattning
Aim: The overall aim of this paper is to examine sexually active young people’s behavioral
expectations of condom use. Methods: We collected data at nine youth clinics and one sexually
transmitted infections (STI) clinic in Sweden. We included participants whom had been sexually
active during the past 12 months: A total of 1022 participants between the ages of 15 and 31 were
included. We analyzed the data separately, for different types of sexual practices and types of
sexual partners. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze age and gender differences for
discrepancies. Results: The behavioral expectation of condom use differed, depending on the type of
sexual practice and the type of partner. For all types of sex, the overall pattern showed that the
participants were most likely to use a condom with a casual unknown partner, followed by a casual
known partner, regular partner and lastly, a main partner. Our results also demonstrated that there is
a discrepancy between the behavioral expectation of condom use and the self-reported condom use.
The lowest discrepancy was for oral sex, especially with a main partner, and the largest discrepancy
was for anal sex and vaginal sex with a casual partner. Conclusions: Our results imply that the
participants had a greater expectation of condom use than actually occurs, especially for casual
unknown partners. There is a lack of knowledge about the risks associated with oral sex, which is
evident in the results of the participants’ behavioral expectations of condom use under those
conditions.