People born in the 1990s are less likely to be sexually active in young adulthood than were their counterparts born in the three previous decades, according to research published this month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Analysts are divided on whether the data indicates a rise in intentional commitment to chastity.
University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus, whose book, “Premarital Sex in America” was cited in the research, said the findings do not justify the conclusion “that intentional chastity is on the rise.” Meanwhile, Ascend, the organization formerly known as the National Abstinence Education Association, lauded the data as suggesting young adults “recognize that casual sex can compromise their life goals.”
General Social Survey
Drawing on self-reported data collected in the General Social Survey from 1989 to 2014, researchers Jean Twenge, Ryne Sherman and Brooke Wells found that 15 percent of 20- to 24-year-old Americans born in the 1990s reported having no sexual partners after turning 18. In contrast, just 6 percent of individuals born in the 1960s gave similar reports when they were 20–24.
When researchers controlled the data for age and time period studied, they discovered young adulthood sexual activity decreased progressively for persons born each decade between the 1960s and 1990s.
Young adults born in the 1990s were “more than twice as likely to be sexually inactive as adults than 1960s-born Gen-X’ers, and 41 percent more likely than 1980s-born millennials,” the researchers wrote.
The report’s authors offered a variety of potential explanations for their findings. Among them:
4Young adults are living with their parents longer and delaying marriage until later in life, “both of which may delay sexual activity.”
4The so-called “hookup culture” may be leading young adults to engage in forms of sexual contact other than intercourse, which they are not reporting to researchers who ask about “having sex.”
‘Safety strategy’
4“The HIV epidemic and associated public heath messaging may have impacted later generations more, with more delaying sex and/or reducing their number of partners as a safety strategy.”
4Abstinence-focused sex education and virginity pledges, like the one associated with the True Love Waits sexual purity campaign, may delay young adults’ initial sexual experiences.
The research was published online Aug. 1 under the title “Sexual Inactivity During Young Adulthood Is More Common Among U.S. Millennials and iGen: Age, Period and Cohort Effects on Having No Sexual Partners After Age 18.” (BP)
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