Predictors of Heterosexual Casual Sex Among Young Adults
Open accessAbstract
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.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Past research on hookups has mostly focused on what type of activity occurs during, or just prior to, the hookup, while limited research has explored selection into hookups and number of casual sex partners by personality, attitudes toward sexuality, other individualistic and psychological characteristics, demographic characteristics, and local campus factors such as sex ratios.
“Past research on hookups has mostly focused on what type of activity occurs during, or just prior to, the hookup, while limited research has explored selection into hookups and number of casual sex partners by personality, attitudes toward sexuality, other individualistic and psychological characteristics, demographic characteristics, and local campus factors such as sex ratios (Adkins et al., 201”
From The role of culture in explaining college students’ selection into hookups, dates, and long-term romantic relationships (2016) · cites this paper as Lyons et al., 2013
Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 1 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
A meta-analytic review of research on gender differences in sexuality, 1993–2007.
Petersen, J. L., & Hyde, J. S. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0017504 · Cited by 931 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 22
- Arnett JJ Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties American Psychologist 2000 55 469 480 10842426
- Bailey JA Fleming CB Henson JN Catalano RF Haggerty KP Sexual risk behavior 6months post-high school: Associations with college attendance, living with a parent, and prior risk behavior Journal of Adolescent Health 2008 42 573 579 18486866 PMC5812449
- Baron R Kenny D The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986 51 1173 1182 3806354
- Bogle KA Hooking up: Sex, dating, and relationships on campus 2008 New York New York University Press
- Cameron AC Trivedi PK Regression analysis of count data 1998 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
- Conley T Perceived proposer personality characteristics and gender differences in acceptance of casual sex offers Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2011 100 309 332 21171789
- Cuffee JJ Hallfors DD Waller MW Racial and gender differences in adolescent sexual attitudes and longitudinal associations with coital debut Journal of Adolescent Health 2007 41 19 26 17577530 PMC2231516
- Eisenberg ME Ackard DM Resnick MD Neumark-Sztainer D Casual sex and psychological health among young adults: Is having “friends with benefits” emotionally damaging? Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 2009 41 231 237 20444178
- England P Shafer EF Fogarty ACK Kimmel M Hooking up and forming romantic relationships on today’s college campuses The gendered society reader 2007 New York Oxford University Press 531 547
- Furstenberg FF The intersections of social class and the transition to adulthood New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 2008 119 1 10 18330917
- Giordano P Longmore M Manning W Northcutt M Adolescent identities and sexual behavior: An examination of Anderson’s “player”hypothesis Social Forces 2009 87 1813 1844 PMC2745159 20161097
- Grello CM Welsh DP Harper MS No strings attached: The nature of casual sex in college students Journal of Sex Research 2006 43 255 267 17599248
- Maccoby EE The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together 1998 Cambridge Harvard University Press
- Manning W Longmore M Giordano P Hooking-up: The relationship contexts of “nonrelationship” sex Journal of Adolescent Research 2006 21 459 483
- Meier A Allen G Intimate relationship development during the transition to adulthood: Differences by social class New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 2008 119 25 39 18330913 PMC3703509
- Owen JJ Rhoades GK Stanley SM Fincham FD “Hooking up” among college students: Demographic and psychosocial correlates Archives of Sexual Behavior 2010 39 653 663 18839300
- Paul EL McManus B Hayes A “Hookups”: Characteristics and correlates of college students’ spontaneous and anonymous sexual experiences Journal of Sex Research 2000 37 76 88
- Petersen JL Hyde J Gender differences in sexual attitudes and behaviors: A review of meta-analytic results and large datasets Journal of Sex Research 2011 48 149 165 21409712
- Raley RK Crissey S Muller C Of sex and romance: Late adolescent relationships and young adult union formation Journal of Marriage and Family 2007 69 1210 1226 20221420 PMC2835313
- Regnerus M Uecker J Premarital sex in America 2011 New York Oxford University Press
- Snyder M Simpson JA Gangestand S Personality and sexual relations Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986 51 181 190
- Townsend JM Wasserman TH Sexual hookups among college students: Sex differences in emotional reactions Achieves of Sexual Behavior 2011 40 1173 1181 21975920
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Young Adult Casual Sexual Behavior: Life-Course-Specific Motivations and Consequences
Lyons, H. A., Manning, W. D., Longmore, M. A., & Giordano, P. C. (2014) · Sociological Perspectives · doi:10.1177/0731121413517557 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Self-citationKuperberg, A., & Padgett, J. E. (2016) · Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · doi:10.1177/0265407515616876 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Longmore, M. A., Manning, W. D., Copp, J. E., & Giordano, P. C. (2016) · Emerging Adulthood · doi:10.1177/2167696816631098 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Self-citationHawkins, S. E., DeLuca, H. K., Claxton, S. E., & Baker, E. A. (2023) · Archives of Sexual Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10508-022-02508-z · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lyons, H., Manning, W., Giordano, P., & Longmore, M.
- Affiliations
- Oakland University (US)
- Bowling Green State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lyons, Heidi
- Venue
- Archives of Sexual Behavior
- Published
- 2013-01-08
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 585-593
- ISSN
- 0004-0002 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2800
- PMC
- PMC3888028
- OpenAlex
- W2009715888
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 10.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Archives of Sexual Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Aging
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD050959, R01HD036223, HD36223, R01HD044206)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Sexual Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Keywords
- young adults, sexual behavior, educational attainment, sexual attitudes, high school graduation, oral sex, vaginal intercourse, sexual health programs
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Educational Status, Female, Humans, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk-Taking, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Partners, Health Behavior, Heterosexuality, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
