So what does love have to do with it? According to the ConnSexual survey conducted last fall about the sexual behaviors and attitudes of Connecticut College students, not much.
The study, which garnered an overwhelming and diverse group of 1,263 responders, found that 56.5 percent of men surveyed “agree” or “strongly agree” that sex without love is acceptable, and roughly 53 percent of women feel the same way.
Inspired by his work in couples therapy, Professor Singer of the psychology department was curious about the messages students get on college campuses about healthy relationships. He hosted the “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” common hour last week.
After hosting a few Dessert and Dialogues with Conn students, Singer realized that in fact students didn’t want to talk about typical relationships, rather their main concerns focused on transactional relationships.
Transactional relationships, unlike exclusive relationships, focus not on building intimacy but rather satisfying a partner’s short term physical and sometimes emotional needs without strings attached.
The idea to conduct a student survey was encouraged by previous studies by Bernard Murstein at Connecticut College which assessed sexual behaviors in 1974, 1979, 1986 and 1991. These studies not only provided insight into the types of questions to ask students in the ConnSexual survey, but also provide valuable information with which to compare this newly released data.
The survey showed that, despite what many students may think, more than 30 percent of women and 18 percent of men have never had sex. CC Curtiss, Director of Student Wellness and Alcohol/Drug Education pointed out that these statistics display a large discrepancy between students perception of sex on campus and the reality of sex on campus.
Freshmen use clickers at orientation to answer questions about controversial issues that they will encounter in college. Most freshmen guess that college students have four or more sexual partners in a year; the ConnSexual survey showed that only 26 percent of men and 22 percent of women surveyed had 3 or more partners in the last year.
Moreover, only 9 percent of men and 6 percent of women have had three or more one-night stands in their lifetime.
“The number of sex partners is significantly and positively correlated with the degree of marijuana and alcohol use; people who drink and smoke more are also more likely to have had more sex partners,” Singer said.
Sixty percent of men surveyed are comfortable with hooking up, while only 47 percent of women feel the same way. Singer outlined that is could be a potentially dangerous power dynamic where men need to use caution when gauging female consent.
The study also touched on perceptions of HIV and other STDs. The good news is that the amount of students being tested for HIV has doubled since 1991, but most students still place themselves in the low-risk category for contracting diseases, despite their questionable sexual behaviors.
“I was most surprised about the students assessment of themselves in the low-risk category for HIV and STDs. We want to explore that more and make sure that students understand that they are actually in the high risk group,” Singer said.
The final portion of the survey conducted a brief assessment of “attachment style,” which labels responders one of the following: secure, fearful, preoccupied or dismissive. This label helps to gauge how they may respond in relationship and hook up situations.
The main focus was on the differences between preoccupied (dependent, needy, jealous, possessive) and dismissive (independent, self-sufficient) males.
Preoccupied males were less comfortable with non-exclusive sex and more hopeful that one-night stands would turn into stable relationships, while dismissive males were the exact opposite.
“These statistics show us that people are engaging in transactional relationships with very different motivations, attitudes and expectations,” Singer said.
Curtiss plans to incorporate the new findings into her orientation programs next fall and expand the health programs into the residence halls.
“As a health educator I am most excited to use this data to start talking about risk assessment in terms of behaviors, building the skills to get what individual students want out of a relationship and change the norms about how people perceive the culture here on campus.”
The results of the ConnSexual study will be presented at the Association of Psychological Science Conference in May in Boston and all involved plan on conducting more research and further analyzing these preliminary results.
