Adult Sexual Behavior in 1989: Number of Partners, Frequency of Intercourse and Risk of AIDS.(Statistical Data Included)

Summary

Questions on sexual behavior that were added to the National Opinion Research Center's 1988 and 1989 General Social Surveys reveal that 97 percent of adult Americans have had intercourse since age 18. Respondents report having an average of about 1.2 sexual partners during the year preceding the survey and nearly 7.2 partners since age 18; men claimed to have had considerably more partners than did women. About one-fifth of adult Americans had no partners during the previous year. Moreover, over a year's time, only 1.5 percent of married people reported having had a sexual partner other than their spouse. On average, adults report engaging in intercourse 57 times per year. About two percent of sexually active adults reported being exclusively homosexual or bisexual during the year preceding the survey, and 5-6 percent have been exclusively homosexual or bisexual since age 18. Seven percent of adults are at relatively high current risk of contracting AIDS -- three percent because they have had multiple partners, three percent because they have had unfamiliar partners and one percent because of their sexual orientation. However, 33 percent have engaged in relatively risky behavior at some time since age 18.

Introduction

Sexual behavior may be the most important of all human activities. It is the process by which the species is reproduced, it is the central behavior around which families are formed, and it is a key component in the emotional lives of individuals. Sexual behavior is also central to a number of social and medical problems: marital difficulties and divorce; rape, incest and child molestation; the reproductive issues of infertility, sterility, contraception, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion; and sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Yet there has probably been less systematic, scientific research on the sexual behavior of Americans than on any other topic of importance. Only one national sample, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) for The Kinsey Institute, has focused on sexual behavior, (1) and only about one dozen national surveys have collected any notable information on the topic. Most of these were focused on other matters but included some measures of sexual behavior (such as the National Fertility Studies, (2) the Leisure Activities Studies, (3) the National Surveys of Family Growth, (4) the General Social Surveys, (5) the 1970 National Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Experience with Erotic Materials, (6) the 1974 Family Planning Evaluation Project, (7) the 1981 Survey of Problem Drinking Among Women, (8) and a 1987 Los Angeles Times survey (9)).

Similar representative studies of young people have included the National Surveys of Young Women, (10) the National Survey of Young Men, (11) the Survey of College Students, (12) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (13) and the National Survey of Adolescent Males. (14) Most included fewer than 10 questions on sexual behavior, and some had only one or two.

The AIDS epidemic currently makes accurate information on sexual behavior of immediate, life-and-death concern, but the collection of scientific information on sexual matters faces much political opposition. (15) This article reports on results from one small, but notable, source of information on contemporary sexual behavior.