The structure of sexual behaviour

• Published in: The Journal of sex research Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 61 - 83
• Main Authors: Coxon, Anthony P. M., Davies, Peter M., Hunt, Andrew J., Weatherburn, Peter, McManus, Thomas J., Rees, Clive
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.1992; Society for the Scientific Study of Sex
• Subjects: Anal intercourse; Coding; Condoms; Ejaculation; HIV transmission; homosexual; Homosexuality; Human sexual behavior; Lubricants; Male homosexuality; Methodology (Data Collection); Orgasm; Research Agenda; Sexual Behavior; Sexual behaviour; sexual diaries; sexual inventories; Sexual self stimulation; Terminology; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0022-4499; 1559-8519
• DOI: 10.1080/00224499209551634

In a national study of gay men's sexual behaviour in the context of HIV transmission, a schema was evolved for encoding and reporting the structure of sexual activity: the Sexual Behaviour Code (SBC). It has linguistic properties, is easily learned and employed, and generalizes easily to heterosexual behaviour. Each sexual session (sentence) comprises a sequence of sexual acts (words), which in turn consists of a sexual behaviour (root), the modality (prefix), and the outcome/ejaculation (suffix). Other aspects (partner/s, drugs, condoms) are encoded as precedents and accompaniments of the acts. The SBC is also used to define a comparable and flexible research instrument for eliciting systematic information on sexual behaviour: the Inventory of Sexual Behaviour (ISB), now used in all WHO/GPA studies of homosexual response. Issues of validity and reliability are addressed, and forms of analysis of the resulting data are discussed for sexual diaries and inventories.