Social Representations and Experiences of Sexual Transactions Among Swiss Youth

• Published in: Archives of sexual behavior Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 1431 - 1447
• Main Authors: Colombo, Annamaria, Carbajal, Myrian, Milani, Riccardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Ethnicity; Female; Humans; Monetary incentives; Original Paper; Psychology; Public Health; Sex industry; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Behavior - psychology; Sexuality; Social Sciences; Switzerland; Teenagers; Young adults; Switzerland; Transactional sex; Youth; Heteronormativity; Switzerland; Sexual transactions; Social representations
• ISSN: 0004-0002; 1573-2800
• DOI: 10.1007/s10508-024-02814-8

This article relies on quantitative data collected in Switzerland as part of a research study on sexual transactions among youth. Building on an analytical framework that defines sexual transactions in terms of negotiated exchanges rooted in social representations, we explored how they were perceived by the Swiss young people included in our sample at a cognitive, ethical, and political level. We found that research participants who reported having experienced sexual transactions viewed them much more positively than those who reported never having engaged in such exchanges. While this was especially true among young women, we also found that the tendency of respondents to perceive sexual transactions negatively increased with age. When analyzed in light of the qualitative results of our study, these quantitative findings suggest that negative representations of sexual transactions are less likely to be based on lived experience than on an ideal-type of sexual behavior. In other words, our research highlights how young people interpret sexuality according to norms developed within a heteronormative matrix.