Americans salute sexual freedom, but still frown on extramarital affairs

Millennials the most sexually permissive generation of the last four decades

New York | Heidelberg, 5 May 2015

Americans in recent years are much more accepting of premarital sex, teen sex, or sexual relations between people of the same gender than was the case 40 years ago. However, most still disapprove of affairs while married, finds Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University in the US. She led a study, published in Springer’s journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, examining how Americans’ sexual attitudes and behaviors have changed over the past four decades.

The data were drawn from the nationally representative General Social Survey, conducted in most years since 1972. Overall, the study suggests that rising cultural individualism has produced an increasing rejection of traditional social rules, including those against non-marital sex, particularly among the so-called Millennials or Gen Ys born between 1982 and 1999. In the 1970s, 29 percent of American adults believed premarital sex “was not wrong at all,” compared to 42 percent in the 1980s and 1990s, 49 percent in the 2000s, and 55 percent in the 2010s, an all-time high. Whereas one sexual partner was the norm for those born early in the 20th century, three to four partners were more common for those born in the 1950s through the 1990s.

According to Twenge, the analysis highlights that sexual permissiveness depends primarily on generation – when someone was born. These trends may be due to shifting religious beliefs, the rising age at which people marry, and norms around unmarried parenthood. With more Americans waiting until their late 20s or later to marry, they have more opportunities to engage in sex with more partners and less reason to disapprove of non-marital sex.

“As individualism increased in the US, sexual attitudes and behavior became more permissive and less rule-bound,” says Twenge. “More Americans believe that sexuality need not be restricted by social conventions. Recent generations are also acting on this belief, reporting a significantly higher number of sexual partners than those born earlier in the 20th century.”

Reference: Twenge, J.M., Sherman, R. A., & Wells, B. E. (2015). Changes in American Adults’ Sexual Behavior and Attitudes, 1972-2012, Archives of Sexual Behavior. DOI 10.1007/s10508-015-0540-2