Introduction

Scientific literature and clinical practice still pay insufficient attention to the interconnectedness between love and sex. Especially youth would benefit in their sexual development from more attention (e.g., in parenting, education, sexual health services) for the complex relational context of sexual decisions and interactions.

Methods

To gain more insight into young people’s dynamically intertwined early experiences with romantic relationships and sexuality, a new semi-structured interview method was developed as part of a larger study on the interrelatedness of love and sex (“Lovely sex or sexy love?”). The newly developed Relational and Sexual History (RSH) interview consists of five steps and is visually supported by a relationship matrix to sketch how developments in relational and sexual aspects of early intimate relationships (from adolescence to young adulthood) are interrelated, and how youth learn cumulatively (across their relationships) about what they do and do not want in their intimate partnerships.

Results

The RSH interview method was piloted in 2018 in a small-scale qualitative study with N = 16 young adults (9 women, 7 men; 18‒25 years). This pilot study showed the method is suitable to assess the chronologic, dynamic, and intertwined relational and sexual histories of youth in a semi-structured manner.

Conclusions and Policy Implications

The RSH interview method may advance scientific research on the linkages between love and sex and can be a valuable tool for clinical practice in sexology and relationship therapy (and increase cross-pollination between these clinical fields). The type of knowledge yielded by these interviews may profoundly impact policies for relational and sexual health promotion for youth.

中文翻译：

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勾画年轻人动态关系和性史的新面试方法

介绍

科学文献和临床实践仍未充分注意爱与性之间的相互联系。尤其是，青年人将通过对性决定和互动的复杂关系情境的更多关注（例如在养育，教育，性保健服务中）而受益于其性发展。

方法

为了更深入地了解年轻人在恋爱关系和性行为上动态交织的早期经历，作为一项关于爱与性（“可爱的性爱还是性感的爱？”的相互关系）的较大研究的一部分，开发了一种新的半结构化访谈方法。新近开发的“关系与性历史”（RSH）访谈包括五个步骤，并在关系矩阵的视觉支持下，勾勒出早期亲密关系（从青春期到年轻成年）的关系和性方面的发展如何相互关联，以及青年如何学习（在他们的关系中）累积他们在亲密伙伴关系中做什么和不想要的事情。

结果

RSH访谈方法于2018年在一项小规模定性研究中进行了试验，研究对象为N  = 16个年轻成年人（9名女性，7名男性; 18至25岁）。这项初步研究表明，该方法适用于以半结构化方式评估年轻人的年代，动态以及相互交织的关系和性历史。

结论和政策含义

RSH访谈方法可以促进有关爱与性之间联系的科学研究，并且可以成为性学和关系治疗的临床实践的宝贵工具（并增加这些临床领域之间的交叉授粉）。这些访谈所产生的知识类型可能会深刻影响青年促进关系和性健康的政策。