Trends in Premarital strongSexstrong in the in the United States, 1954.pdfVIP

Research Articles Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 1954–2003 a SYNOPSIS Lawrence B. Finer, PhD Objectives. Policy and programmatic efforts promoting sexual abstinence until marriage have increased, but it is unclear whether establishing such behavior as normative is a realistic public health goal. This study examined the propor- tion of individuals in various cohorts who had had premarital sex (defined as either having had vaginal intercourse before first marrying or ever having had intercourse and never having married) by various ages. Methods. Data from four cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, 1982–2002, and event history analysis techniques, including Kaplan-Meier life- table procedures and Cox proportional-hazards regression models, were used to examine the incidence of premarital sex by gender and historical cohort. Results. Data from the 2002 survey indicate that by age 20, 77% of respon- dents had had sex, 75% had had premarital sex, and 12% had married; by age 44, 95% of respondents (94% of women, 96% of men, and 97% of those who had ever had sex) had had premarital sex. Even among those who abstained until at least age 20, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. Among cohorts of women turning 15 between 1964 and 1993, at least 91% had had premarital