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Sociodemographic and Psychosexual Characteristics of Students from a Spanish University Who Engage in Casual Sex

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Abstract

Casual sexual relations, understood as those in which there are no expectations of affective commitment, are increasingly common among youth. The goal of this study was to analyze the casual sexual behavior of students from a Spanish university, paying special attention to its relation with sociodemographic and psychosexual variables. Participants were 659 students from a Spanish university aged between 18 and 26 years, without a partner or being in a partner relationship of less than 12 months, who completed a battery of online questionnaires. It was found that about half of the participants had engaged in casual sex in the past year, with no differences as a function of gender. Engaging in casual sex was related to being older, less religious, performing risky sexual behaviors, and other psychosocial variables such as attitudes towards condoms, sociosexuality, and measures of personal well-being. The discussion highlights the need to conduct more research on casual sexual relations, due to the possible influence of cultural aspects in youth’s sociosexuality.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the “Antonio Gargallo-Ibercaja” Foundation, Spain (grant 2015/A006), and granted to Dr. Ángel Castro.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, 44003, Teruel, Spain

    Ana Belén Correa, Ángel Castro, Juan Ramón Barrada & Paula Ruiz-Gómez

Authors
  1. Ana Belén Correa
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  2. Ángel Castro
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  3. Juan Ramón Barrada
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  4. Paula Ruiz-Gómez
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Correspondence to Ángel Castro.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Correa, A.B., Castro, Á., Barrada, J.R. et al. Sociodemographic and Psychosexual Characteristics of Students from a Spanish University Who Engage in Casual Sex. Sex Res Soc Policy 14, 445–453 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-017-0274-0

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