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Predictors of Heterosexual Casual Sex Among Young Adults

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Abstract

Casual sex is often associated with the young adult stage in the life course. Most recent research on the prevalence, motives, and consequences of heterosexual casual sex has relied on samples of college students, yet students are only a small and advantaged subset of the young adult population. The current study drew on the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, which was collected in 2006–2007 and included young adults (ages 18–24 years) whose trajectories reflected a wider spectrum of educational experiences (N = 1,023). We moved beyond prior work by examining both frequency and type of heterosexual casual sex: lifetime vaginal, lifetime oral, and recent vaginal sex. We found that young adults enrolled or who graduated from 4-year educational institutions reported fewer casual sex partners on all three measures compared to participants without a high school degree and those with some college experience. Sexual attitudes were key factors mediating the association between educational status and casual sex behavior. These results indicate that programs aimed at encouraging healthy sexual behavior should target individuals who are at risk of not graduating high school because they are at greatest risk of frequent casual sex partners.

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Notes

  1. STATA 12 suppresses post-estimation model fit estimates when using multiple imputation. We used the data before imputation to estimate the model fit.

  2. We recognize that more refined methods to test for mediation exist (MacKinnon, 2008), but they cannot be applied to negative binomial regression.

  3. We determined how conservative or liberal the sample was on sex attitudes by dividing the mean score by six (the number of questions in the scale). The responses ranged from 6 to 30 and the total score of 2.7 for the total sample suggesting the sample was just below the midpoint, slightly conservative. Females had a score of 2.5 meaning they were slightly conservative and males had a score of 3 indicating that on average they were at the midpoint. Males were more liberal than females in terms of their sexual attitudes.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, HD36223, and by the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD050959-01).

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Correspondence to Heidi Lyons.

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Lyons, H., Manning, W., Giordano, P. et al. Predictors of Heterosexual Casual Sex Among Young Adults. Arch Sex Behav 42, 585–593 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-0051-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-0051-3

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