The author provides a brief summary of the main approaches to the study of risk in sexual contexts, making comparisons, where appropriate, with research in the area of young drivers and risk. He briefly considers methods, the nature of the activities involved, theoretical approaches, some of the results, and, finally, some possible lessons that may inform further risk related research. He does this from a position of not only having researched young drivers (Rolls et al, 1991; Rolls and Ingham, 1992) and produced intervention material (Ingham and Rolls, 1993; Ingham and Rolls, 1998), but also as Director of the Centre for Sexual Health Research at the University of Southampton. This is a multi-disciplinary centre which has been involved in researching sexual risk taking amongst young people in the light of the threat of HIV/AIDS, the increase in rates of other sexually transmitted infections, and the high rate of teenage conceptions in the UK. Although both the study of sexual conduct and driving amongst young people are concerned with understanding why and how risk-taking occurs, there is little as yet that can be profitably applied from the former to the latter. The majority of the research in the area of driving risk has, not surprisingly, been concerned with skills and their development, and it is only relatively recently that the social aspects of driving have been fully recognised and focused upon. In the study of sexual health, qualitative research methods have proved to be extremely helpful to complement the larger scale survey and questionnaire data, and a similar expansion of research approaches in the field of driving might prove to be equally profitable. Through such approaches, a much clearer picture can be obtained of the various social and individual factors which affect driving styles and risk perception can be obtained.
Samenvatting