Posted April 18, In fact, some studies show that hookups are twice as common as first dates Bradshaw et al. These ideas can be concerning, given the clear health and mental health benefits of marriage and marriage-like long-term relationships for adults and for their children. So we decided to explore whether they might be true. In a study led by Neslihan James-Kangal, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Cincinnati, and published in Sexuality and Culture , we asked college students who were years old to report on the number of different people they had hooked up with in the past 10 weeks.
We also measured whether they expected to be in an exclusive, committed relationship which could be, but did not have to be, marriage in 5 years and at age 30, and how likely they thought it was that they would get married someday. On average, the young adults in this sample had hooked up with two different partners in the last 10 weeks, though this ranged from partners. So, this was a group of college students in which hooking up was fairly common.
Interestingly, 71 percent of these young adults expected to be in a committed relationship or married within 5 years, and nearly all of them It did not. The number of different hook-up partners participants had in the past 10 weeks showed no association with whether they expected to be in a committed relationship or marriage in 5 years or at age 30 and no association with how likely they thought it was that they would eventually marry.
These findings suggest that the rise of the hook-up culture does not signal the demise of marriage. Rather, they are in line with theories of emerging adulthood Arnett , which define this developmental period approximately ages as a time of identity exploration, personal freedom, and self-growth. Many people use their emerging adult years to explore different life options and to pursue personal and professional goals. That is, many emerging adults de-prioritize committed relationships temporarily while pursuing their education and establishing a productive career.
Then, only after self-focused goals have been accomplished, they begin to seek committed relationships. So in the meantime, it makes sense for them to keep their relationships casual. Arnett, J. Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. Bradshaw, C. To hook up or date: Which gender benefits? Sales, N. Vanity Fair. Sarah Whitton, Ph.
