American Sexual Behavior: Trends, Socio-Demographic Differences ...

American Sexual Behavior:


Trends, Socio-Demographic Differences, and Risk Behavior








Tom W. Smith






National Opinion Research Center

University of Chicago




GSS Topical Report No. 25


Updated
March,
2006



This research was done for the General Social Survey (GSS) project
directed by James A. Davis, Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. The
GSS is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Version
6.0

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Introduction

Sexual behavior is not only of basic biological importance,
but of central social importance. Not only does it perpetuate the
human species, but it is the central behavior around which families
are formed and defined, a vital aspect of the psychological well-
being of individuals, and a component of a variety of social
problems. Among current concerns tied in part to sexual behavior
are the familial problems of marital harmony and divorce; criminal
problems of rape, incest, child molestation, and prostitution;
reproductive problems of infertility, sterility, unwanted and
mistimed pregnancies, and abortion; and health problems related to
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
About 17% of adults 18-59 have had an STD and the lifetime
infection rate is likely to be over 20% (Laumann, Michael, Gagnon,
and Stuart, 1994).1 Moreover, with the advent of AIDS the medical
problem of STDs has taken on increasing urgency (CDC, 2002; Div. of
HIV/AIDS Prevention, 1995 and Yankauer, 1994). Deaths from AIDS
rose at a rapid pace in the 1980s and early 1990s. By 1992 AIDS had
become the number one cause of death among men 25-44. Then due to
improvements in medical treatments, cases diagnosed as AIDS peaked
in 1993 and deaths from AIDS in 1995. The death rate fell by more
than two-thirds and has continued declining through 2002 (CDC,
1998; 2000; "AIDS Falls," NCHS, 2005; 1998; State and Local, 1998;
State and Territorial Health Depts. et al, 2000; Surveillance
Branch, 2001). Likewise, newly diagnosed HIV cases have also fallen
(Espinoza et al, 2005). Most HIV infections have resulted from
sexual behavior and heterosexual intercourse has become a major
mode of transmission ("Heterosexuality," 1994; CDC, 1998; 2002;
Espinoza et al., 2005).

1A 1998 study for the Kaiser Family Foundation by Princeton
Survey Research Association indicates that 14% of adults 18-44 who
have ever had sexual intercourse have had an STD other than AIDS.
For rates among youths see Ellen, Aral, and Madger, 1998. For HIV
infection rates among homosexuals in large urban cities see
Catania, et al., 2001.


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Because of both the importance of sexual behavior in general
and the continuing problem of AIDS in particular, we need to arm
ourselves with a thorough, scientifically-reliable understanding of
sexual behavior and especially to study high-risk behavior (Hewitt
and Beverley, 1996). In this paper we will outline what is
currently known about American sexual behavior.2 Attention will

2This report addresses a number of measurement issues, but
does not focus on methodology and measurement error. For recent
discussions of the reliability and validity of sexual behavior data
see Acree et al., 1999; Ansuini, Fiddler-Woite, and Woite, 1996;
Auster, n.d.; Bachrach, Evans, Ellison, and Stolley, 1992; Biggar
and Melbye, 1992; Binson and Catania, 1998; Blumberg, 2003;
Boekeloo et al., 1994; Boekeloo et al., 1998; Bogart et al., 2000;
Brener et al., 2004; Brewer et al., 2000; 2004; Brewer and Garrett,
2001; Brody, 1995; Brown and Sinclair, 1996; Brown and Sinclair,
1999; Carballo-Dieguez et al., 1999; Carpenter, 2001; Casper,
Cohen, and Simmons, 1999; Catania, 1996; Catania, Binson, Canchola,
Pollack, Hauck, and Coates, 1996; Catania, Canchola, and Pollock,
1996; Catania, Gibson, Chitwood, and Coates, 1990; Catania,
McDermott, and Pollack, 1986; Catania, Turner, Pierce, Golden,
Stocking, Binson, and Mast, 1993; Cecil and Zimet, 1998; Clark et
al., 1997; Clayton, McGarvey, and Clavert, 1997; Copas et al.,
2004; Couper and Stinson, 1999; Daker-White, 2002;Downey, Ryan,
Roffman, and Kilich, 1995; Dunne, Martin, Bailyet, Heath, Bucholz,
Madden, and Stalham, 1997; Edelman, 1998; Ellen et al., 2002;
Ellish, Weisman, Celentano, and Zenilman, 1996; Ericksen, 1998;
Fenton, 2001; Friedman et al., 2004;Fu et al., 1998; Giami, 1996;
Gibson, Hudes, and Donovan, 1999; Hunter, 2005; Gillmore et al.,
2001; Hearn, O=Sullivan, and Dudley, 2003; Hewitt, 2002; Hornsby
and Wilcox, 1989; Huygens, Kajura, Seeley, and Barton, 1996;
Jaccard, Dittus, and Gordon, 1998; Jasso, 1985 and 1986; Johnson
and Delamater, 1976; Kahn, Kalsbeck, and Hofferth, 1988;
Karabatsos, 1997; Kissinger et al., 1999; Kupek, 1998; Kupek, 1999;
LaBrie and Earleywine, 2000; Latkin and Vlahox, 1998; Lauritsen and
Swicegood, 1997; Leonard and Ross, 1997; Maass and Volpato, 1989;
Metzler et al., 1992; Miller, 1995 & 1996; Morris, 1993; Newcomber
and Udry, n.d.; Orr, Fortenberry, and Blythe, 1997; Padian, Aral,
Vranizan, and Bolan, 1995; Peterman, 1995; Pitts and Rahman, 2001;
Plumb, 2001; Pollack et al., 2005; Ramjee, Weber, and Morar, 1999;
Remez, 2000; Rosenthal et al., 1996; Seal, 1997; Shaver, 2005; Shew
et al., 1997; Smith, 1992a; 1992b; 1999a; 1999b; Stone, Catania,
and Binson, 1999; Sonenstein, 1997; Tourangeau, Rasinski, Jobe,
Smith, and Pratt, 1997; Tourangeau and Smith, 1996; 1998;
Tourangeau, Smith, and Rasinski, 1997; Trivedi and Sabini, 1998;
Turner, 1999; Turner, Rogers, Lindberg, Pleck, and Sonenstein,
1998; Upchurch et al., 1991; Upchurch et al., 2002; Van Duynhoven,
Negelkerte, and Van de Laar, 1999; Van Griensven et al., 2005;
Wadsworth, Johnson, Wellings, and Field, 1998; Weinhardt et al.,
1998; Wiederman, 1997; 1999a; 1999b; Wight and West, 1999; Zenilman
et al., 1995; and Zimmerman and Langer, 1995.


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focus on 1) trends and 2) socio-demographic differences within the
following areas:

a)
Premarital and Adolescent Sexual Activity
including Cohabitation and Non-marital Births

b)
Adult and General Sexual Behavior including

Extra-marital Relations, Gender of Sexual



Partners, Frequency of Sexual Intercourse, and
Sexual Inactivity

c)
The Impact of AIDS on Sexual Behavior
including Reported Changes in Sexual Behavior,
Number of Sexual Partners, Relationships
between Sexual Partners, Prostitution, and the
Use of Condoms


Premarital and Adolescent Sexual Activity

Premarital sexual intercourse become increasingly common over
the last century (Table 1A, see also Hopkins, 1998 and Whitbeck,
Simons, and Goldberg, 1996; Joyner and Laumann, 2001). This
increase was not merely the result of the so-called sexual
revolution of the 1960s. The change was underway for decades prior
to the 1960s and has continued since then. Rates among men were
moderately high even from the beginning (61% of men born before
1910 report having had sexual intercourse before marriage) and
climbed steadily. Women had low rates of premarital intercourse to
begin with (only 12% of those born before 1910 had pre-marital
sexual intercourse), but their rates grew more rapidly than those
of men and the gap between men and women has narrowed over time. By
the 1980s (roughly the 1965-1970 birth cohort) women had almost as
much sexual experience as men prior to marriage (in 1988 of those
15-19 60% of men and 51.5% of women had engaged in premarital sex).
This increase in premarital sexual experience is confirmed by
community studies (Wyatt, Peter, and Guthrie, 1988 and Trocki,
1992) and longitudinal panels (Udry, Bauman, and Morris, 1975).
Then in the early 1990s the century-long increase in the level
of premarital and adolescent sexual activity reached a peak and
then declined for the first time in decades (Table 1A and Abma et
al., 2004; Abma and Sonenstein, 2000; Averett, Rees, and Argys,
2002; Bachrach, 1998; Besharov and Gardiner, 1997; DuBois and
Silverthorn, 2005; Stossel, 1997; Peipert, et al., 1997; Singh and
Darroch, 1999). The decrease appears to be somewhat greater for
males than females, but both genders show a leveling-off and then
some reversal.3

3Work by Schuster, Bell, and Kanouse, 1996 suggests that
precise definitions of sexual intercourse are needed to understand
the trends and what sexual activities are occurring. In their
sample of 9-12th graders in a Los Angeles County school district,
they found that 35% of those who had never had vaginal intercourse


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With the increase in levels of premarital sexual intercourse
came a fall in the age of first intercourse (Table 1B). In 1970 5%
of women age 15 and 32% age 17 were sexually experienced, by 1988
this had grown to 26% at age 15 and 51% at age 17 (see also Kahn,
Kalsbeek, and Hofferth, 1988; and Hofferth, Kahn, and Baldwin,
1987). This trend may also have leveled-off and possibly reversed
since then, but the evidence is inconclusive (Table 1B).
When the increase in levels of premarital sexual intercourse
is coupled with the rising age at first marriage, this means that
men and women are spending longer and longer periods of their
sexual life outside of marriage (Ehrhardt and Wasserheit, 1992;
Bachrach and Horn, 1987; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels,
1994). Between 1960 and 2000 the median age at first marriage rose
from 22.8 to 26.8 for men and from 20.3 to 25.1 for women. For
women the median age of first premarital intercourse in 1960 was
about 19.0 (Turner, Miller, and Moses, 1989 and Bachrach and Horn,
1987), meaning on average only a short period of premarital sexual
activity. In 1990 the median age at first sex was 16.9 for women
(Divs. of Epidemiology and Prevention; Adolescent and School
Health; and Reproductive Health, 1992), meaning an average exposure
of 8.2 years. For men the period of premarital sexual activity now
averages 10.7 years (26.8 - 16.1).

had had genital sexual activity in the last year including
masturbation with a partner and/or oral and anal sex. For other
work on how "sex" and related terms are defined by people see
Bogart, et al., 2000; Carpenter, 2001; Pitts and Rahman, 2000;
Remez, 2000; Smith, 1999a.


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With people spending longer periods engaged in premarital
sexual activity the number of lifetime sexual partners has also
grown for both men and women (Table 1C). Between the pre-1910 birth
cohort and the 1940-49 birth cohort the portion of men with two or
more premarital sexual partners rose from 49% to 73%, while for
women the gain was from 3% to 26%. This trend continued until
recent years. For example, among sexually-experienced women ages
15-19 living in metropolitan areas, 38% had had 2 or more sexual
partners in 1971 while by 1988 this had increased to 61%. More
recently there is evidence of a reversal of this trend. On the
Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS) the % of male high school
students with 4+ sexual partners declined from 1989 to 2001-03, but
the trend among females is less clear.4 For males and perhaps for
females the decline may have leveled-off by 2003.

Cohabitation

The rise in premarital and adolescent sexual activity, coupled
with delays in marriage, has led to more people living together.
Since 1970 the rate of living together outside of marriage has
increased more than 6 fold, from 1.1% to 7.4% of couples in 1999
(Table 2 and Bramlett and Mosher, 2002; Manning and Smock, 2005).
Similarly, the proportion of households involving a cohabiting
couple climbed from 0.8% in 1960/1970 to 5.2% in 2000. Also, the
portion of single mothers who were cohabitating grew from 2% in
1970 to 12% in 1995 (London, 1998). However, there is some
indication that the long rise in cohabitations may have leveled of
in recent years.
Increases and even higher current levels have occurred in
other developed countries (Heuveline and Tibmverlake, 2004).
While the proportion of couples and adults cohabitating at any
one point in time remains small, a large and growing percent live
together at some point. Currently over a third of adults in their
mid-twenties to mid-thirties cohabited before their first marriage
and half of this age group has cohabited at some point in their
lives (Table 3A). Cohabitation after and between marriages is even
more common. According to the General Social Survey (GSS) among
those 25-44 who are in a second marriage, 61% cohabited with their
new spouse before marriage (GSS, 1994).
Cohabitation differs little by gender or race. It is higher

4Other studies of teenage sexual behavior include Averett,
Rees, and Argys, 2002; Goodenow, Netherland, and Szalache, 2003;
Hou, 2002; Jaccard and Dittus, 2000; Leitenberg and Saltzman, 2000;
Levin, Xu, and Bartkowski, 2002; Raghavan et al., 2004; Santelli,
2000; Santelli, et al, 1998; 2000.


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among younger adults, the divorced, separated, and never married,
those in urban areas, and among those who attend church less
frequently. Current, but not prior cohabitation with ones spouse,
is higher among the less educated and those with lower incomes
(Table 3B).
Cohabitation is usually a short-term arrangement, typically
resulting in either marriage or a break-up after about a year
(median duration of 1.3 years) (Thomson and Colella, 1992; Bumpass
and Sweet, 1989; Thornton, 1988).
Cohabitation has often been characterized as a trial marriage
and about 40% lead to marriage within two years and about 60%
eventually culminate in marriage between the cohabiting partners
(Bumpass and Sweet, 1989). However, marriages formed after
cohabitation are rated as less stable and result in more divorces
than marriages not preceded by living together (Axinn and Thornton,
1992; Brown and Booth, 1996; Clarkberg, Stolzenberg, and Waite,
1995; DeMaris and MacDonald, 1993; DeMaris and Rao, 1992; Lillard,
Brien, and Waite, n.d.; Popenoe, 1993; and Thomson and Colella,
1992). Cohabitation thus "does not seem to serve very well the
function of a trial marriage... (Popenoe, 1993)."
Those who are cohabiting have fewer sexual partners than those
who are unmarried and not cohabitating. However, people who are
cohabitating have more sexual partners than married couples (Waite
and Joyner, 1996). For example, on the GSS the married averaged
1.01 partners last year, the never married who were cohabiting had
1.39 partners, and the non-cohabitating, never married had 1.67
partners. That fact, coupled with the transitory state of most
cohabitations, makes living together riskier than marriage when it
comes to STDs (Turner, Miller, and Moses, 1989; Kost and Forrest,
1992).

Non-marital Births

With the link between sexual activity and marriage breaking
down, the connection between marriage and procreation has also
lessened. In the 1960s (and presumably before) when premarital
sexual intercourse resulted in conception, the women's pregnancy
usually in turn led to a marriage before the child was born (Table
4 and Driscoll, et al., 1999; South, 1999). Since then, the
propensity of unmarried parents to marry before the birth of their
child has steadily fallen. By the 1990s less than 25% of women who
conceived children before marriage got married before their child's
birth.
As a result of the higher level of premarital sexual activity
and the decline in marriages after a conception but prior to birth,
there has been a large increase in out-of-marriage births (Ermisch,
2005; Miller and Heaton, 1991 and Table 5). In 1960 only 5% of all
births were to unmarried women. This climbed to 14% by 1975 and 33%
by 1994. After 1993 th rate of increase slowed appreciably with the
% of all births to unmarried mothers only rising from 32.6% in 1994
to 34.0% in 2002.
The trend in the United States has been parallel to changes in


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culturally-similar, advanced industrial nations and not unique to
the US. While the percent of births to unmarried mothers climbed
from 5% in 1960 to 34% in 2002 in the US, it rose from 5% to 41% in
Great Britain, from 4% to 29% in Canada, and from 6% to 44% in
France (Statistical Abstract, 2006; See also, Teitler, 2002).
The rate of increase has been much greater for Whites than for
Blacks. For Whites the percent of unmarried births has expanded
over 12-fold from 2.3% of all births in 1960 to 28.5% in 2002,
while the Black level grew by a little over three-fold from 21.6%
in 1960 to 70.4% in 1994 (and then down to 68.2% by 2002). While
the Black-to-White ratio has fallen from a little over 9:1 in 1960
to under to 3:1 in 1990s, the gap between Blacks and Whites rose
from 19 percentage points in 1960 to 44-46 percentage points in
1980 to 1996 (with a peak in 1993). The differences then fell
somewhat to 40 percentage points in 2002. This means that over two-
fifths of White or Black mothers would have to change their marital
status to equal that of the other race. The cumulative difference
between Whites and Blacks is further shown by the fact that by ages
30-34 only 23% of never-married, White women have given birth,
while 69% of never-married, Black women have had a child (Bachu,
1991 & 1995; Loomis and Landale, 1994).
While both Whites and Blacks have a greater proportion of
births occurring outside of marriage, they have achieved the gains
through decidedly different paths (Table 5). For Whites the
unmarried birth rate (number of births to unmarried women per 1,000
unmarried women ages 15-44) rose throughout the period. It
increased more than 4 times from 9 in 1960 to 37-39 in 1994-2000.
For Blacks their rate was quite variable over time. It fell from 98
in 1960 to 79 in 1985 before climbing again to 91-93 in 1989-90 -
still below their birth rate in the 1960s. In the early-1990s the
Black unmarried birth rate then again declined, falling to 71.5 in
1999.
In addition, there is also a high level of unintended births
(Abma et al., 1997; National Survey of Family Growth, 2005; and
Williams, 1991). Of women 15-44 in 2002 who have had a child, 31%
reported that they had an unintended birth. Of these 40% were
unwanted and the balance were mistimed.
In brief, over the last century premarital sexual activity
become more widespread, sexual initiation started at younger ages,
the period of premarital sexual activity lengthened, and the number
of premarital sexual partners increased. This expansion in
premarital sexual activity in turn led to major increases in
cohabitation and unmarried child bearing.
But during the 1990s a small, but historic, reversal of some
of these trends occurred. The level of premarital and adolescent
sexual activity leveled-off and in some aspects retreated and the
proportion of births outside of marriage reached a plateau. These
changes are partial rather than across the board (e.g. levels of
cohabitation continue to rise) and even those behaviors that have
leveled-off or reversed are at near record high rates. But even
limited changes to a massive, century-long trend are highly notable
and potentially important from a public-health perspective.


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Adult and General Sexual Behavior

Compared to the amount of information available on premarital
and adolescent sexual behavior, until recently there has been
little scientifically reliable data on the sexual behavior of
adults or of the population in general (Aral, 1994; di Mauro, 1995;
and Seidman and Rieder, 1994). Moreover, the dearth of
representative and credible studies has created a vacuum that has
been filled by unrepresentative and incredible misinformation from
popular magazines, sex gurus, and others. In this section we review
what is known about extra-marital relations, sexual orientation,
the frequency of sexual intercourse, and sexual inactivity.

Extra-marital Relations

There are probably more scientifically worthless "facts" on
extra-marital relations than on any other facet of human behavior.
Popular magazines (e.g. Redbook, Psychology Today, Cosmopolitan),
advice columnists (Dear Abby and Dr. Joyce Brothers), pop-
sexologists (e.g. Morton Hunt and Shere Hite) have all conducted or
reported on "studies" of extra-marital relations. These studies
typically find extremely high level of extra-marital activity
(Reinisch, Sanders, Ziemba-Davis, 1988; Smith, 1989; Smith, 1991b;
and Gibbs, Hamil, and Magruder-Habib, 1991). Hite for example
reported that 70% of women married five or more years "are having
sex outside of their marriage (Smith, 1988)." They also often claim
that extra-marital relations have become much more common over
time. Dr. Brothers (1990), for example, claims that 50% of married
women now have sex outside of marriage, double the level of a
generation ago.
But representative, scientific surveys (Choi, Catania, and
Dolcini, 1994; Forste and Tanfer, 1996; Greeley, 1994; Greeley,
Michael, and Smith, 1990; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels,
1994; Leigh, Temple, and Trocki, 1993; Tanfer, 1994; Treas and
Giesen, 1996; 2000) indicate that extramarital relations are less
prevalent than pop and pseudo-scientific accounts contend (Table
6). The best estimates are that about 3-4% of currently married
people have a sexual partner besides their spouse in a given year
and about 15-18% of ever-married people have had a sexual partner
other than their spouse while married (Michael, Laumann, and
Gagnon, 1993).
There is little direct and reliable trend information on
extra-marital relations before 1988. Since then, levels have not
changed much. Prior to then there is indirect evidence that extra-
marital relations may have increased across recent generations. The
figure of ever having extra-marital relations rises from 13% among
those 18-29 to 20% among those 40-49 (Table 7). It then falls to
9.5% among those 70 and older. Since these are lifetime rates, one
would normally expect them either to increase across age groups or
to increase until a plateau is reached (this would be the case if
few first-time, extra-marital relations were started among older


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adults). The leveling-off and then drop among those 50 and older
suggests that members of birth cohorts before about 1940 were less
likely to engage in extra-marital relations than were spouses from
more recent generations (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels,
1994; Greeley, 1994).
In terms of current extra-marital relations, Table 7 indicates
that they are more common among younger adults. This is largely a
function of younger adults having been married a shorter period of
time. Some recently married people have difficulty adjusting from a
premarital pattern of multiple sexual partners to a monogamous
partnership and in general recent marriages are more likely to end
in divorce than long-term marriages. The rates of extra-marital
relations are about twice as high among husbands as among wives
(Table 7). Extra-marital relations are also more common among
Blacks, those with lower incomes, those who attend church less
frequently, those who have been separated or divorced (including
those who have remarried), and those who are unhappy with their
marriage. It also may be more frequent among residents of large
cities, but the overall relationship with community type is fairly
small and somewhat irregular. Finally, extramarital relations do
not vary much for the last year by education and the lifetime
pattern with education is mixed and unclear.


Gender of Sexual Partners

Few debates have been so contentious as the controversy over
the sexual orientation of Americans (Billy, et al., 1993; Stokes
and McKiran, 1993; Michaels, 1997; Mosher, Chandra, and Jones,
2005; and Swann, 1993). The gay and lesbian communities have long
adopted 10% as the portion of the population that is homosexual.5
However, a series of recent national studies (Table 8A) indicate
that only about 2-3% of sexually-active men and 1-2% of sexually-
active women are currently engaging in same-gender sex (see also
Anderson and Stall, 2002; Black et al, 2000; Butler, 1998;
Horowitz, Weis, and Laflin, 2001; and Sell and Becker, 2001). These
national American estimates are consistent with figures from local

5We use the term "sexual orientation" as a shorthand to refer
to the gender of one's sexual partners. Our usage is based on
behavior and not on preference or psychological identification.
Similarly, we will use "gays" to refer to men who have had male
sexual partners and "lesbians" to refer to women who have had
female sexual partners. Unless otherwise indicated these terms will
include "bisexuals" (i.e. people who have had both male and female
sexual partners). "Homosexuals" refers to men or women who have had
same gender sexual partners.
On issues relating to definitions and terminology see Bevier,
Chiasson, and Hefferman, 1996; Doll and Beeker, 1996; Friedman et
al., 2004; Gonsiorek and Weinrich, 1991; Michaels, 1997;
Rietmeijer, et al., 1998; Kennamer and Bradford, 1998; and Rankow,
1996.


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