Research

Most human beings do not approach any kind of decision making using cold, rational logic, and this is particularly true when it comes to making decisions during sexual encounters with new partners. This is a context where emotion-based reasoning can dominate, and much of Shayna's work has focused on exploring the factors that can influence how we approach decision-making and negotiation in these challenging situations. 

The Need to Belong: Loneliness & Social Support
Building from her work on relationship motivation, Shayna is exploring belongingness needs more deeply - examining how loneliness and the need for social connection relate to engagement in sexual health behaviours and the negotiation of sexual boundaries among sexual minority men.  She also explores how minority stressors and social support contribute to and buffer against loneliness and impact well-being in sexual minority men. In this work she is exploring the environmental and psychosocial factors that mediate the emotional distress and risky sexual behaviours associated with loneliness and well-being.  

Her preliminary work on this topic has shown that supportive relationships are an important resource for coping. Among HIV-negative sexual minority men higher perceived social support was associated with lower levels of minority stress, depression, and anxiety. She also found evidence of both direct effects on HIV risk reduction behaviours and a buffering effect: higher perceived social support mitigated the impact of internalized homonegativity (minority stress) on the likelihood of engaging in condomless anal sex without PrEP use. However, her work has also cautioned that sexual minority men are not a homogeneous group and not all experience the same benefits of group membership.

Shayna has also looked at the connection between loneliness and sexual behaviour in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. She found that having good sources of social support before March 2020 predicted less loneliness after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, although loneliness wasn't associated with sexual risk-taking in the first year of the pandemic, it was associated with an uptick six months later, once vaccines started to roll out and the initial anxieties around COVID-19 began to dissipate. This provides evidence in support of the association between loneliness and sexual risk, but also demonstrates that there are circumstances (i.e., when there is high anxiety about other health threats) where it may not apply.

In her ongoing SSHRC-funded research programs,  Shayna is exploring how fluctuations in online and in-person sources of social support may impact feelings of loneliness and how fluctuations in loneliness may relate to changes in substance use and higher-risk sexual behaviour among sexual minority men. Shayna is also exploring potential pathways to improve individuals' ability to cope effectively with feelings of loneliness. 

Shayna is also collaborating with community partners like the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention and the Centre for Community Based Research to launch new programs of work that aim to address inequities in terms of access to culturally safe sexual health education and sexual healthcare resources for Black sexual minority men. Our end goal is to develop resources that will reduce stigma, empower Black sexual minorities, and sustainably improve sexual health outcomes for Black sexual minorities in Canada.

Motivated Reasoning & Sexual Arousal
To read more about Shayna's work on these topics, click here. 

Selected Publications:

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Chow, S., Palma, P. A., Adam, B., Elkington, N., Dvorakova, H., Hanes, D. W., ... & Hart, T. A. (2025). Social support (in)directly buffers internalized homonegativity's effects on deression and intrusive sexual thoughts/behaviors. Health Psychology, online ahead of print.  https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001468 [Link to post-print]

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Fairbrother, N., Socha, R., Faaborg-Andersen, M., Noor, S. W., & Hart, T. A. (2024). Multidimensional measurement of attitudes towards consensual non-monogamy. The Journal of Sex Research,  63(3), 378-389  https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2320454  [Open-Access Copy of the Scale Items.]

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Palma, P.A., Zahran, A., Hart, T. A., Moore, D.M., Cox, J., Lachowsky, N. J., … & Grace, D. (2023). Loneliness and the sexual health of sexual minority men in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, E12814. http://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12814

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Card, K., Novick, J., Berlin, G. W., Lachowsky, N. J., Adam, B., Brennan, D. J., … & Hart, T. A. (2022). The relevance of communal altruism for sexual minority men in the age of biomedical HIV prevention. Journal of Community Psychology, 51(4), 1461-1478. http://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22923 

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Cox, J., Lachowsky, N. J., Kirshbaum, A. L., Berlin, G. W., Gaspar, M., Adam, B. D., Brennan, D. J., Moore, D. M., Apelian, H., Sang, J. M., Jollimore, J., Grace, D., Grey, C., & Hart, T. A. (2022). Minority Stressors and Connectedness Among Urban Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Men. Psychology of Men & Masculinities. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000388

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Berlin, G., Lachowsky, N. J., Moore, D. M., Cox, J., Apelian, H., Sang, J., Grace, D., Lambert, G., & Hart, T. A. (2021). The impact of perceived social support on the sexual health of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Health Psychology  https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001131.  Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34928633.

Gaspar, M., Skakoon-Sparling, S., Adam, B., Brennan, D. J., Lachowsky, N. J., Moore, D., Cox, J., Hart, T. A., & Grace, D. (2021). ‘You’re gay, it’s just what happens’: Sexual minority men recounting experiences of unwanted sex in the era of #MeToo. The Journal of Sex Research, online ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1962236 

Skakoon-Sparling, S., & Milhausen, R. M. (2021). Sexual Excitation and Sexual Inhibition in the Context of Sexual Risk-Taking. Journal of Sex Research, 58, 671-680. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1776820

Skakoon-Sparling, S., & Cramer, K. M. (2021). Sexual risk taking intentions under the influence of relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and sexual arousal. Journal of Sex Research, 58, 659-670. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1743227 

McKie, R., Skakoon-Sparling, S., Lever, D., Sezlik, S., & Humphreys, T. (2020). Is there space for our stories? An examination of North American and Western European gay men’s non-consensual sexual experiences. Journal of Sex Research, 57(8), 1014-1025. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1767023

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Morgan, E. F., Giles, M., Kroch, A. M., Milhausen, R. M., & Bacon, J. (2019). Communicating about risk for sexually transmitted HIV on the front lines in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 28, 261-271. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2019-0015 

Braham, J.*, Skakoon-Sparling, S.*, Kilimnik, C., & Milhausen, R. (2019). Intimate partner violence history and its association with condom use negotiation. Personality and Individual Differences, 147, 256-260.   *Shared first authorship

Skakoon-Sparling, S., & Cramer, K. M. (2019). Are we blinded by desire? Relationship motivation and sexual risk taking intentions during condom negotiation. The Journal of Sex Research, 19, 1-14 . https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1579888  ** Named Top Trending Article in 2019 and Editor's Choice in 2020 **

Skakoon-Sparling, S., & Cramer, K. M. (2018). The Role of Meta-Motivational States in Sexual Risk-Taking Intentions During Condom Negotiation. Journal of Motivation, Emotion, and Personality, 7, 1-8. DOI: 10.12689/jmep.2018.701 

Skakoon-Sparling, S., & Cramer, K. (2016). The impact of sexual arousal on elements of sexual decision making: Sexual self-restraint, motivational state, and self-control. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 25, 119-125. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.252-A1 

Skakoon-Sparling, S., Cramer, K. M., & Shuper, P. A. (2016). The impact of sexual arousal on male and female sexual risk-taking and decision-making. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0589-y  

Sparling, S., & Cramer, K. (2015). Choosing the danger we think we know: Men's and women's faulty perceptions of sexually transmitted infection risk with familiar and unfamiliar new partners. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 24, 237-242. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.243-A2