The social organisation of sexual relationships: an exploratory qualitative study

This study shows how contemporary understandings of relationships are wrought with the legacies of the past, while also being shaped by an increasingly complex, often technologically-mediated, novel social environment. Understanding these shifts in the social organisation of sexual relationships is vital to inform policies, tailor effective interventions to prevent the transmission of STIs, and to improve sexual health communication, services and outcomes. We explored the social organisation of sexual relationships through analysing qualitative data from eleven focus groups conducted in Scotland and England with members of the public and participants recruited from sexual health clinics. Purposive and convenience sampling elicited 57 participants (heterosexual, n=30, aged 18-30 years; men who have sex with men, n=27, aged 18-65 years). An initial thematic analysis was subsequently explored further in terms of its resonance with key constructs from sexual script theory. The study shows how the ways people perceive and talk about their relationships relates to the changing and multi-layered social organisation of relationships. Our findings emphasize how recent, labile, socio-cultural scenarios are shaping fluid and emerging interpersonal and intrapsychic sexual scripts leading to both new uncertainties and opportunities in the ways we relate to each other sexually.