A New Standard of Sexual Behavior? Are Claims Associated With the “Hookup Culture” Supported by General Social Survey Data?

Abstract

Popular media have described intimate relationships among contemporary college students as dominated by a pervasive sexual “hookup culture,” implying that students are involved in frequent sexual encounters pursued by both participants without the expectation of a continuing relationship. The hookup culture has been described as “a nationwide phenomenon that has largely replaced traditional dating on college campuses” (Bogle, 2008, p. 5). We tested whether these claims are supported among young adults (18–25) who had completed at least one year of college. Contrasting 1988–1996 waves of the General Social Survey with 2004–2012 waves, we found respondents from the current era did not report more sexual partners since age 18, more frequent sex, or more partners during the past year than respondents from the earlier era. Sexually active respondents from the current era were more likely than those from the earlier era to report sex with a casual date/pickup or friend, and less likely to report sex with a spouse/regular partner. These modest changes are consistent with cultural shifts in the “scripts” and terminology surrounding sexuality. We find no evidence of substantial changes in sexual behavior that would indicate a new or pervasive pattern of non-relational sex among contemporary college students.

Notes

Note. For the same-sex partner variable, individuals reporting at least one same-sex partner since age 18 were coded as Yes. All other responses and missing responses, including those reporting no partners, were recoded as No. All other variables had no missing data.

Note. Ns for dichotomous variables include all respondents answering the question, not just those who responded in the affirmative. Weighting slightly increases the reported frequencies.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Note. For Number of Partners Since 18, the total number of reported male and female partners were added. Frequency of Sex During Past Year ranged from 0 (None) to 6 (4 or more times per week). Number of Partners in Past Year ranged from 0 (None) to 8 (100 or more). Attitude variables ranged from 1 (Almost always wrong) to 4 (Not wrong at all). Due to weighting, Ns do not correspond perfectly to actual numbers of respondents.

Note. For each Wald test statistic there was 1 degree of freedom. The dependent variables in these analyses were coded so that 0 =No and 1 =Yes. The Era variable was coded so that 1988–1996 = 0 and 2004–2012 = 1. The Sex variable was coded so that Male = 0 and Female = 1. The Sex With Some Other Person variable had too few affirmative responses to allow for a meaningful logistic regression analysis. Due to weighting, Ns do not correspond perfectly to actual numbers of respondents.