An interesting study reports that, contrary to what the public opinion might be, millennials are not as loose and promiscuous as the previous generations, which goes to show that being young doesn’t always equal to being frisky.
The survey data for the study analyzed and compared sexual attitudes in each generation over a time span of 40 years, and the results were rather surprising: Generation X has had more sexual partners than millennials.
According to the Archives of Sexual Behavior study, millennials – those born between 1980s and 2000s – reported an average of 8 sexual partners, while Gen Xers – born between late-1960s and early 1980s – were more in the area of 10 partners.
The gap is even more visible when millennials are compared with Baby Boomers – 1946-1964 population – who “won” with a reported 12 sexual partners. But when the data reached the people born in the 1910s, the mentality of those years could be seen in the reported mean average of 2 partners.
As study co-author Jean M. Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, observed, the results indicate that millennials (or Generation Y) might show a little more discretion about sex than both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.
In this so-called “hookup culture”, the results were unexpected. Millennials are still entertaining sexual relationships outside uncommitted relationships, but the reported number in partners has decreased.
Twenge believes the dreadful HIV and AIDS epidemic going around back in the 1980s and early 1990s might have something to do with the results. She says that millennials might have been scared by consequences, and that made them more conservative.
This is also the first generation to be raised by so-called “helicopter parents,” dubbed like this because their tendency to fuss over every small and insignificant possible threat to their children’s wellbeing.
Generations before this one did not worry so much about child safety, car seats and safe playgrounds – children weren’t supervised 24/7 and they were often left to their own wits. This over-protective attitude might also contribute to the caution millennials show in their sexual practices.
What didn’t surprise researchers, however, is the fact that acceptance of pre-marital sex and that of same-sex couples has reached an all-time high. This kind of attitudes are in line with the tolerance that is now preached amongst millennials seeking to distance themselves culturally from convention and traditional social rules. The rule-of-thumb is “if you’re not hurting me, you can do whatever you want.”
Image Source: Huffington Post