Sex, commitment, and casual sex relationships among college men: a mixed-methods analysis

"It Is A Purposefully Ambiguous Term": Examining Emerging Adults' Definitions of Hooking Up and How They Vary by Sex/Gender and Educational Background

The majority of past work on hooking up among emerging adults uses a researcher-led definition and often uses college student samples. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine participant-led definitions of hooking up using a large sample (N = 701) of college-attending and non-college emerging adults. Most definitions included behaviors (91.7%), a partner type (64.3%), and references to commitment (69.2%). However, considerable variation in definitions within these categories was identified, in particular with reference to commitment. In our sample, definitions attended to what a hook "is" and "is not" as it relates to commitment. Hookup characteristics were also discussed in definitions, including frequency of hooking up, decision making, sexual health and safety, and purposes for hookups. Participants regularly referenced other common terms in relation to hooking up, including one-night stands, casual sex, no strings attached, and friends with benefits. For some, hookups were similar to these other types of casual sex experiences, whereas for others hooking up was distinct. We also quantitatively examined proportional differences in definitional categories and sub-categories based on sex/gender (men vs. women) and educational background (college-attending vs. non-college). Although some proportional differences were found, in general men and women and college-attending and non-college emerging adults defined hookups in similar ways. Programming focused on emerging adult romantic and sexual relationship education would benefit from addressing these subtle, but meaningful variations, as individuals enact hookup scripts based on how they define their encounters. Future opportunities for research to integrate both researcher-led and participant-led definitions of hooking up are discussed.

The sexual wholeness model: An initial evaluation with two samples

Based upon the psychological needs delimited in self-determination theory, we created the sexual wholeness model to encapsulate the different dimensions (physical, emotional, and meaning) that create couple sexuality. We evaluated the model with data from two national samples (Sample 1, n = 610; Sample 2, n = 884), by examining the association between sexual, relationship, and life satisfaction, and attachment with the different elements of the sexual wholeness model using harmonious sexual passion as an intermediate variable. The emotional dimension had the strongest associations in both samples with harmonious sexual passion and all other outcomes except attachment. The physical dimension of sexuality had a surprisingly strong association with attachment and sexual satisfaction. In addition, couples' self-evaluation of the degree of sexual wholeness in their relationship was strongly associated with harmonious passion and all other outcomes, providing another level of validity to the dimensions of the model and the potential utility for using this model to assist in couple therapy.

Scripting Sex in Courtship: Predicting Genital Contact in Date Outcomes

Despite increasing egalitarian values expressed among college students, dating is still characterized by traditional gender roles. Because traditional dating scripts are predominantly recited and enacted to the extent that men initiate and pay, there are assumptions that the sexual processes have not changed. This study investigates the sexual processes of male-initiated and female-initiated dates among college students in the US. Using data from the Online College Social Life Survey, we ask whether traditional components of the dating script explain traditional sexual outcomes (non-genital contact), as well as whether alternative dating scripts explain nontraditional sexual outcomes (genital contact). Using multivariate logistic regression models, we found that violations of the traditional script are associated with higher odds of genital contact for male- and female-initiated dates; however, the predictors of genital contact for female-initiated dates are not the same as those for male-initiated dates. This study highlights the variability of sexual scripts in dating practices, suggesting that the sexual scripts associated with dates are not as homogenous as we have previously believed.

Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Evaluating a General Meaning of Sex Measure

The presence of and search for meaning has divergent and salient outcomes for individuals' physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Although numerous domains of meaning have been examined, the literature on the meaning of sex is sparse and lacks a quantitative measure. In this study, we evaluated a new general Meaning of Sex (MOS) Measure that captured the presence of (MOS-P) and search for (MOS-S) the meaning of sex by analyzing how these subscales were associated with important relational and sexual outcomes (i.e., relationship stability and satisfaction and sexual satisfaction) in two samples. For Sample 1, all participants (N = 865) reported engaging in what they considered to be sexual intercourse and were either single or in a relationship. For Sample 2, all participants (N = 884) reported being in a committed relationship for at least two years. With both samples, confirmatory factor analyses showed good construct validity as the two subscales were distinct from one another and had good reliability. The analyses also demonstrated divergent validity between both scales and meaning in life, sexual motivations, sexual beliefs, and religiosity. The MOS-S had a strong (and negative) association with relationship stability in both samples. The MOS-P had a strong (and positive) association with relationship satisfaction in both samples.

Meanings Ascribed to Sex and Commitment Among College-Attending and Non-College Emerging Adults: A Replication and Extension

The purpose of this study was to examine how meanings ascribed to sex and commitment vary based on educational background, gender, and other correlates using a large sample of college-attending and non-college emerging adults (ages 18-25; N = 669). Findings from our content analysis replicated previous research by identifying meanings focused on commitment (47.8%), flexibility (22.7%), and recreation (17.8%). We also found two additional meanings focused on finding a sexual connection (termed Connectors; 9.1%) and using sex to test relationship compatibility (termed Testers; 2.5%), which were not found in previous studies on sex and commitment. A greater proportion of women than men were in the Committers group, whereas a greater proportion of men than women were in the Recreationers group. A greater proportion of heterosexual than sexual minority participants were in the Committers group, whereas a greater proportion of sexual minority than heterosexual participants were in the Flexibles and Testers groups. A greater proportion of those in committed relationships than those in casual or no relationships were in the Committers group, whereas a greater proportion of those in casual relationships than those in committed or no relationships were in the Recreationers group. Those in the Recreationers group reported the greatest average number of hookup partners in the last 12 months (compared to all others), and those in the Recreationers and Testers groups reported the greatest average number of lifetime sexual partners (compared to all others). Implications for future research and sexual health education for emerging adults are discussed.

"Thanks for Telling Me": The Impact of Disclosing Sex Secrets on Romantic Relationships

This research investigated the relationship consequences of disclosing sexual secrets to a romantic partner. Analyses of data from a 39-item Internet questionnaire completed by 195 undergraduate students showed that revealing sex secrets to a romantic partner was associated with either neutral or positive relationship outcomes. Disclosure of sexual secrets almost never (< 5%) resulted in relationship dissolution and over a third of the sample reported that they appreciated the honest disclosure. In addition, keeping sex secrets was related to lower relationship satisfaction such that each additional sex secret being kept from a romantic partner was associated with a one-half point loss of satisfaction (on a 5-point relationship satisfaction scale). This decrease persisted when controlling for sex and race. Mediation analyses found support for the notion that the type of romantic relationship an individual is in explains part of the association between keeping secrets and relationship satisfaction. Implications and future research considerations are suggested.

Catching up! The sexual behaviour and opinions of Italian students (2000–2017)

While sexuality has radically changed across middle–high-income societies in recent years, only outdated studies are available for Italy. We aim to provide novel insights into the sexual behaviour and opinions of young Italians diachronically and through a gendered lens. Our analysis compares the results of two national samples of university students collected in 2000 and 2017. The sexual behaviour and opinions of young men and women seem to be converging in several respects. We observed a feminisation of male opinions and behaviour within couples, which is to say that men are more likely to experience first intercourse with a young woman of roughly the same age while in a stable relationship, and betray—or accept betrayal—with less frequency and willingness than in the past. Similarly, we found a masculinisation of female opinions and behaviour outside of stable relationships, for example, an increase in occasional partners, a net drop in the expectation that other women hold virgin status before marriage, and a doubling of the acceptance of casual sex. A few gender differences remain, especially concerning sexual double standards: young men and women are still subject to diverse rules guiding their sexual behaviour. Finally, acceptance of homosexuality has risen substantially—particularly among women.

Patterns of Sexual Risk Behaviors among College Women: A Latent Profile Analysis

Sexual risk behavior is common among college women, but little work has identified risk patterns or correlates. The current study utilized latent profile analysis to identify sexual risk patterns among 1,534 college women. Results supported four classes: low sexual risk (68.2%), moderate sexual risk: party hookups (11.0%), moderate sexual risk: risky partners (17.6%), and high sexual risk (3.1%). Membership in the moderate and high-risk classes were associated with coping motives, drinking, and risky peer norms, while membership in the low risk class was associated with sexual satisfaction and low peer approval of risky sex. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Growing Up, Hooking Up, and Drinking: A Review of Uncommitted Sexual Behavior and Its Association With Alcohol Use and Related Consequences Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

Hookups are uncommitted sexual encounters that range from kissing to intercourse and occur between individuals in whom there is no current dating relationship and no expressed or acknowledged expectations of a relationship following the hookup. Research over the last decade has begun to focus on hooking up among adolescents and young adults with significant research demonstrating how alcohol is often involved in hooking up. Given alcohol’s involvement with hooking up behavior, the array of health consequences associated with this relationship, as well as its increasing prevalence from adolescence to young adulthood, it is important to determine the predictors and consequences associated with alcohol-related hooking up. The current review extends prior reviews by adding more recent research, including both qualitative and experimental studies (i.e., expanding to review more diverse methods), research that focuses on the use of technology in alcohol-related hookups (i.e., emerging issues), further develops prevention and intervention potentials and directions, and also offers a broader discussion of hooking up outside of college student populations (i.e., expanding generalization). This article will review the operationalization and ambiguity of the phrase hooking up, the relationship between hooking up and alcohol use at both the global and event levels, predictors of alcohol-related hooking up, and both positive and negative consequences, including sexual victimization, associated with alcohol-related hookups. Throughout, commentary is provided on the methodological issues present in the field, as well as limitations of the existing research. Future directions for research that could significantly advance our understanding of hookups and alcohol use are provided.

Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment in Casual Sexual Relationships in a Canadian Sample of Emerging Adults

Research on casual sexual relationships (CSRs) among emerging adults is prevalent, yet our empirical and theoretical knowledge of relationship processes involved in these relationships is limited. The present study's objective was to compare four CSR partner types (acquaintance, friend, non-dating partner, ex-romantic partner) on passion, intimacy, and commitment, the components of Sternberg's triangular theory of love. A total of 441 Canadians aged 18-25 years who were not in a romantic relationship, and who reported having had more than one sexual contact with their last CSR partner, completed an online survey. Across all partner types, passion was highest, followed by intimacy and commitment. Levels of passion, intimacy, and commitment generally increased with partner familiarity. However, CSR partner type differences on the three components were partially explained by CSR components (i.e., frequency of sexual activity, frequency of social activity, whether partners saw each other with the main goal of having sex, sexual exclusivity agreement, and hopes about the relationship). Results are consistent with CSRs' emphasis on sexuality, and, to a lesser extent, emotions. However, they challenge the mainstream and scientific conflation of CSRs with an absence of emotional bond, commitment, or love.

"You Worry, 'cause You Want to Give a Reasonable Account of Yourself": Gender, Identity Management, and the Discursive Positioning of "Risk" in Men's and Women's Talk About Heterosexual Casual Sex

Heterosexual casual sex is routinely depicted as a physically, socially, and psychologically "risky" practice. This is the case in media accounts, psychological research, and other academic work. In this article, we examine 15 men's and 15 women's talk about casual sex from a discursive psychological stance to achieve two objectives. Firstly, we confirm the categories of risk typically associated with casual sex but expand these to include a domain of risks related to (gendered) identities and representation. Men's talk of risk centered on concerns about sexual performance, whereas women's talk centered on keeping safe from violence and sexual coercion. The notion of a sexual reputation was also identified as a risk and again manifested differently for men and women. While women were concerned about being deemed promiscuous, men displayed concern about the quality of their sexual performance. Secondly, within this talk about risks of casual sex, the participants' identities were identified as "at risk" and requiring careful management within the interview context. This was demonstrated by instances of: keeping masculinity intact in accounts of no erection, negotiating a responsible subject position, and crafting agency in accounts of sexual coercion-in the participants' talk. We argue that casual sex, as situated within dominant discourses of gendered heterosexuality, is a fraught practice for both men and women and subject to the demands of identity representation within co-present interactions.

"No messages needed-just pats on the back": Exploring young men's reports of male and female friends' sexual communications

The current study provided an exploratory mixed methods investigation of the messages undergraduate men received about sex and relationships from their male and female friends. Participants included 310 undergraduate men who provided written responses regarding the specific messages they had received from male and female friends. Descriptive codes included: Just Do It, Meaningful Intimacy, Gentlemen, Postpone Sex, Women's Sexual Desire, and Objectification of Women. Reports of sexual communications were typically consistent with the Heterosexual Script and congruent with the friend's gender. Accordingly, reports of male friends' communications often portrayed the accumulation of sexual experiences and partners as necessary and desirable, whereas serious, romantic relationships were often portrayed as hindrances. Reports of female friends' messages, in contrast, primarily focused on the importance of romantic relationships and the idealization of sex within such relationships. Reports of messages that were incongruent with the Heterosexual Script were rare, and were more often found in reports of female friends' communications. For example, female friends were the only source of messages regarding women's sexual needs, desire, and pleasures. By documenting patterns of common and uncommon messages and their sources, the present study contributed insights into how male and female friends similarly and differentially reinforce different dimensions of hegemonic masculinity.

Thirty years of sexual behaviour at a Canadian university: Romantic relationships, hooking up, and sexual choices

Every 10 years from 1980 to 2010, students in a British Columbia university were surveyed about age of sexual initiation, number of partners, and degree of emotional intimacy within their partnerships. Between 1980 and 1990, the socially acceptable prerequisite for premarital sex appeared to shift from the promise of marriage to mutual love. This change was demonstrated by a fall in the virginity rate among unmarried females, and the rise of monogamous romantic relationships for males. From 1980 through 2010, men reported more sexual partners than did women, with a smaller, though rising, proportion of serious relationships. Since 1990, never-married students were classified into three sexual behavioural groups: monogamists (about 55%), abstainers (30%), and multi-partnered “experimenters” (20% of men throughout each decade, and 7.6% of women in 1990–2000, rising to 14.4% in 2010). Experimenters generally reported concurrent partners, most of them casual. Since 1980, most sexually active students have experienced both romantic relationships and casual sexual partnerships, yet since at least 1990, the majority have been primarily monogamous. This article traces the changes and continuities in romantic relationships, casual sex, and sexual behavioural groups over 30 years, concluding that contrary to the claims of popular media and some academics, casual sex (“hookup culture”) has not replaced romantic relationships as the most common form of student sexual behaviour.

Meanings for Sex and Commitment Among First Semester College Men and Women: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend research on the meanings for sex and commitment using a sample of first semester college students (N = 268). We examined responses to a series of open-ended questions about participants' meanings for sex and how they described these meanings as connected with relationship commitment. Our qualitative analyses replicated those of Olmstead, Billen, Conrad, Pasley, and Fincham (2013). Our largest group was the Committers (sex is indicative of love and trust and occurs after commitment is developed in a relationship), followed by Flexibles (sex can hold deep personal meaning, but can also be purely for pleasure and isn't always connected with commitment), and then Recreationers (sex is a basic need or purely for pleasure and is not associated with commitment). Groups were then examined based on demographic characteristics and pre-college hookup experience. Groups were found to differ by gender, relationship status and type, religiosity, and pre-college hookup experience. For example, a greater proportion of women than men were in the Committers group, whereas a greater proportion of men than women were in the Flexibles and Recreationers groups. Those in the Committers group had fewer pre-college hookup partners than Flexibles and Recreationers; however, Flexibles and Recreationers did not differ in number of pre-college hookup partners. We then followed up (at the end of the semester) with a subsample (n = 73) of participants to examine whether meanings for sex and commitment remained stable or changed over a brief period of time. The majority (82.2 %) of participants' meanings remained stable. For those whose meanings shifted, meanings became more consistent with those of the Committers group than the other two groups. Implications for research and sexual and relationship education are discussed.

First Semester College Students’ Definitions of and Expectations for Engaging in Hookups

Our study was guided by a developmental lens (emerging adulthood) and the theory of symbolic interaction as we attended to the meanings and definitions that contextualize expectations for engaging in hookups while attending college. Using a directed approach to qualitative content analysis, we examined first semester college men’s and women’s ( N = 253) responses to a series of open-ended questions focused on definitions of and expectations for hooking up. Six definitional variations of hooking up emerged from these responses: (a) “sex” left undefined, (b) making out, (c) a range of sexual activities, (d) “sex” defined as intercourse, (e) the “all but sex” continuum, and (f) hanging out or going on a date. Chi-square analyses indicated no proportional differences in these definitions based on participant gender. Characteristics of hookup partners were also identified in participant responses. Whereas a greater proportion of men identified physical appearance as a necessary attribute of a potential hookup partner, a greater proportion of women discussed (a) familiarity with a hookup partner and (b) hookups as occurring between noncommitted individuals. Also, a greater proportion of men than women indicated expectations to hookup while attending college. Implications for research, relationship and sexual health education, and policy are discussed.

Unpacking the "Pleasures" and "Pains" of Heterosexual Casual Sex: Beyond Singular Understandings

Discussions of heterosexual casual sex are often imbued with (gendered) assumptions regarding the motives for, and drawbacks of, such a practice. The pulls of casual sex are often depicted as sexual gratification and the drawbacks relayed in terms of physical risk, for example, sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. Most of the research in this area has largely focused on undergraduate university students or "emerging adults" in North America, using primarily quantitative methodologies. We build on this work and a small but growing amount of qualitative research to unpack the complex psychoemotional and experiential dimensions of casual sex. We report on a critical thematic analysis of interviews with 30 ethnically diverse women and men (aged 18 to 46) in New Zealand about their experiences of heterosexual casual sex to achieve two things. First, we demonstrate the complexity with which women and men discussed their casual sex experiences, highlighting how the practice was varied, contradictory, and multifaceted, and played in a localized way during the conversation. Second, we illustrate how this talk was governed by contemporary Western discourses of intimate relationships and the shape of (gendered) heterosexuality. We conclude that casual sex research must always consider the broader sociocultural context, as well as the interpersonal context, within which any sexual relating is situated.