Real Relationships and Ideal Intimacies: Romantic Love in an AIDS Epidemic

Margaret Frye, University of California, Berkeley
Jenny Trinitapoli, Pennsylvania State University

Researchers studying young adult sexual activity typically use crude categories to differentiate more and less risky relationships, masking important differences in relationship context. We introduce an alternative metric for assessing levels of risk within relationships, which represents individuals’ ability to engage in sexual activity under conditions they themselves deem ideal. We collected new data in Southern Malawi, using card-sort techniques to generate sequences describing respondents’ past experiences and stated ideals. Using optimal matching and regression analyses, we examine differences between realized and ideal relationships along three dimensions: the most common discrepancies between ideal and realized sequences, the attributes predicting who is most likely to actualize their ideals, and the associations between actualization of ideals and perceptions of risk in relationships. Results suggest that the actualization of sexual ideals is patterned by socioeconomic status, and that deviations from ideal sequences predict respondents’ perceived risk of contracting AIDS and of relationship dissolution.