Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex

[smoogatz]

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/19/premarital.sex.ap/

So, lessee here--83% of Americans say they're Christian, and 37% of the Christians say they're evangelicals...

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/beliefnet_poll_010718.html

[lectrobyte]

1. The evangelicals are warped by the guilt of their "sins" and begin

a lifelong crusade to make sure no one has non-procreative sex.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. How can that be if 80% of the country are strong Christians and have 'family values'?

[WI_DEM]

8. but people can be strong Christians and believe in family values

and still have had premarital sex. Of course my ideas of Christian/family values differ from fundies.

[fhqwhgads]

3. stupid question...

...if i'm reading that correctly, it's saying that 95% of all americans have had sex before marriage, and 99% of adults have had sex by age 44...not that 95% of americans who have had sex did so before marriage. is my interpretation correct?

(anyway you slice it, apparently i need to get out more. i could be pope, if it weren't for the whole atheist thing.)

:argh:

[originalpckelly]

4. They meant 95% people in America had sex before marriage.

:P

[fhqwhgads]

6. well...

...that sucks (pardon the pun).

you know, at some point, you have to ask yourself if it's time to join a monastery and spend the rest of your life making beer or tea or whatever the hell goes on in there.

:banghead:

cue the sad violins :nopity:

[Greybnk48]

5. Women born in the late 40's were young adults in the late 60's

Make love not war ring a bell? Maybe they thought we were not having premarital sex because they don't remember the 60's?

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Gotta Be Careful With This Study

I read that AP story in today's Chicago Trib. One of the things in the story i found confusing was that they measured the number of people who had premarital sex but all the way up to 44 years old. Well, that would exclude anyone who didn't have premarital sex, but got married at 20! So, without seeing the absolute numbers, i'm not sure what conclusions can really be drawn.

That being said, it is a pretty big number and there does seem to be a disconnect between the "values" crowd and these data. I'm just not sure how big the disconnect really is.
The Professor

[noonwitch]

9. I'm having trouble accepting the 95% number

Mainly because so many women from my mother's generation are alive and a good number of them were virgins when they got married.

[smoogatz]

10. Sure they were.

That what they told you?

[Subdivisions]

11. I wouldn't buy a car before I test drove it, either... n/t