Posted on 12/20/2006 8:04:33 AM PST by Froufrou
More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I remember reading something by Emma Goldman, written circa 1912, along the lines that "so great is the misery of the laboring classes, that abortion has surged in New York City to the astounding level of 17 in every 100 pregnancies." For the past 35 years it's been about twice that, and not considered "astounding."
I have to chuckle a little at this ... while researching some family history, I discovered the mother of one of my great grandfathers was born just 4 months after her parents were married. This was back in the 1850's. The bride was 15 and the groom was 16, and they were married in the "big city" 40 miles from their little backwater town. Shotgun wedding? Sure seems like it ... but they stayed married and went on to have six more children.
That's a whole lot different from promiscuity, hooking up, sleeping around, Saturday-night-get-lucky, and similar derangements. A whole lot different.
Still, my mother says the author's candor was NOT appreciated. ;-D
The stats aren't necessarily implausible. The conclusions are.
LOL - certainly does.
What I find interesting is that most (just about all, actually)of my friends who were sexually active (VERY sexually active, in some cases)have settled down into very monogamous lifestyles in their 30s. I myself have never been so much as tempted to cheat on my wife, and my closest friends, who I absolutely believe would tell me of any infidelities, are strictly into their husbands/wives/significant others.
I sometimes wonder, when I hear of people in previous generations who were sexually repressed prior to being married, didn't wonder what they missed out on, leading to serial infidelity and, often, divorce. I also wonder if my generation is pretty much in line with me and my friends and if there's a declining divorce rate.
Some could view your asking as a bait, but I'm not taking it that way. I believe in safe sex or none at all. I'm very fortunate that my husband and I are monogamous so we never need a love glove.
I wouldn't call you wrong. If you were risky, that was your choice.
No baiting intended. Thanks for not taking it that way.
You were lucky.Yet what if the couple gets married and one partner or the other has an aversion to sex,or certain types of sex,or perhaps is more sex driven than the other one?
Incompatibility would ensue.Its better to know those things ahead of time than to find out after the marriage ceremony.
Interesting point. I doubt it's completely cause-and-effect, but I can say that having been a Busy Girl when I was single, I've now been very happily married for twenty years. And I can report the same rampant monogamy amongst most of my friends as well.
Hey, we're all young once. I don't think anyone forgets that 'hot for someone' feeling. It's da bomb. Powerful.
Oh yes. I live to embarrass my kids... ;)
Not really, but it IS fun when it happens on it's own...
I don't think that's a Christmas song!
In the big scheme of things, I think it's best for the children who result (whether from the marriage or not) to refrain.
That is the main reason it is considered a "sin". It can mean troubled children, especially those created out of wedlock - i.e., inideal situations.
How it affects the participants is secondary.
And some of us do marriage as well as we clean house.... ;)
Should it be? ;o)
But I usually write the way I talk, and I don't talk like that.
Well, sure, but in the big scheme of things, I think it's incumbent upon people to ensure to the greatest extent possible that they don't procreate out of wedlock. Of course, that's often easier said than done, but it worked for me for more than a decade.
And if it's a "sin" in a person's belief system than by all means that person should restrain and refrain. But that's the ideal - it doesn't always work out that way.
Ain't that great? It took me awhile to figure it out, having made two mistakes. The right match is what nails it.
Is that all marriage is to you?
Geezy weezy, the overweening emphasis on sex.
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