This article relies on quantitative data collected in Switzerland as part of a research study on sexual transactions among youth. Building on an analytical framework that defines sexual transactions in terms of negotiated exchanges rooted in social representations, we explored how they were perceived by the Swiss young people included in our sample at a cognitive, ethical, and political level. We found that research participants who reported having experienced sexual transactions viewed them much more positively than those who reported never having engaged in such exchanges. While this was especially true among young women, we also found that the tendency of respondents to perceive sexual transactions negatively increased with age. When analyzed in light of the qualitative results of our study, these quantitative findings suggest that negative representations of sexual transactions are less likely to be based on lived experience than on an ideal-type of sexual behavior. In other words, our research highlights how young people interpret sexuality according to norms developed within a heteronormative matrix.

本文依赖于瑞士收集的定量数据，作为青少年性交易研究的一部分。基于一个分析框架，该框架根据植根于社会表征的协商交换来定义性交易，我们探讨了样本中的瑞士年轻人在认知、道德和政治层面上如何看待性交易。我们发现，那些自称经历过性交易的研究参与者比那些自称从未参与过此类交易的人对性交易的看法要积极得多。虽然这一点在年轻女性中尤其如此，但我们还发现，随着年龄的增长，受访者对性交易的看法呈负向增长。根据我们研究的定性结果进行分析时，这些定量结果表明，性交易的负面表征不太可能基于生活经验，而是基于理想的性行为类型。换句话说，我们的研究强调了年轻人如何根据异性恋矩阵中制定的规范来解释性行为。