Abstract
The goal of this chapter is to present a descriptive picture of young adult relationships using data from the recently released 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). The strength of this analysis is that it employs nationally representative data on both men and women and considers the broad spectrum of relationships experienced by young adults ages 18–23, including marriage, cohabitation, non-coresidential sexual relationships, the sexually inactive, and the sexually inexperienced. Because much of the research on the “hook-up” culture has focused on college students, I also describe how relationship experiences differ between college students and other young adults. I find that more young adults are forming steady relationships than are just hooking up and having sex. This is true of college students as well as those who never went to or are no longer enrolled in college. In fact, a distinctive aspect of college students, both men and women, is the high proportion who are not sexually active.
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Raley, K. (2012). I Just Want Your Kiss? Sexual Relationships in Young Adulthood. In: Booth, A., Brown, S., Landale, N., Manning, W., McHale, S. (eds) Early Adulthood in a Family Context. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_11
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