Hooking Up in the College Context: The Event-Level Effects of Alcohol Use and Partner Familiarity on Hookup Behaviors and Contentment

The current study examined hooking up experiences through event-level analyses, including the connections involving alcohol use, the extent of physical contact, and postevaluations of the hookup event. Participants were 828 college students (67.0% female). Of students who reported hooking up sometime within the past year (54.8%), chi-square analyses revealed that they were more likely to have been drinking when they met their partners the night of the hookup. Females who were drinking beforehand and females who met their partners that night were more likely to feel discontent with their hookup decisions. Among participants who consumed alcohol prior to their last hookup, a notable 30.7% of females and 27.9% of males indicated that they would likely not have hooked up with their partners had alcohol not been involved. Further, 34.4% of females and 27.9% of males indicated that they would not have gone as far physically if they had not been drinking. Among participants who reported both drinking beforehand and hooking up with unfamiliar partners, greater number of drinks consumed was associated with more advanced sexual behaviors. The current findings highlight the potential risks associated with alcohol use in the hooking up culture.     

The Upside to Hooking Up: College Students’ Positive Hookup Experiences

Objectives: Popular media and research have predominately focused on the risks of hooking up, which may stigmatize young people. In the current study, we identify factors that facilitate positive hookups. Methods: College students (N = 250) in the United States reported hookup motives, sexual self-concept, sexual satisfaction, and emotional reactions to a hookup. Results: Emotional reactions were more positive than negative. Intimacy and pleasure motives predicted sexual satisfaction; self-affirmation motives predicted positive emotional reactions. Hookups with a previous partner were rated as more satisfying. Conclusions: Understanding qualities associated with positive hookups may better equip young adults to make informed decisions about their sexual lives.     

Benefits of Hooking Up: Self-Reports from First-Year College Women

ABSTRACT

This study explored the benefits of hooking up among first-year college women. Two authors coded for the presence of 10 benefits (kappas: 0.76–0.97) in 262 women's responses to an open-response survey question regarding benefits of their most recent hookup. The most common benefits identified were sexual pleasure (23%), general positive emotions (21%), increased confidence (11%), and clarification of feelings (11%). Overall, 71% reported at least 1 benefit, but 29% reported no benefits. For some young women, hooking up has benefits that can include meeting their needs for social connection, sexual exploration and intimacy, and fun/enjoyment.     

Negative affect as a moderator of the relationship between hookup motives and hookup consequences

ABSTRACT

Objective: The current study examined the extent to which negative affect moderates the relationships between distinct hookup motives and hookup consequences. Participants: Data were collected from 271 heavy-drinking undergraduate college students. Methods: Students from 3 US universities completed online surveys assessing hooking up–related motives, behaviors, and consequences. Results: The results showed that conformity motives to hookup and negative affect predicted hookup consequences. Furthermore, negative affect moderated the relationship between hooking up for relationship reasons and hookup consequences. Specifically, among students with high negative affect, hooking up to secure a long-term relationship was positively associated with hookup consequences whereas among students with low negative affect, securing a long-term relationship was negatively associated with hookup consequences. Conclusions: These findings highlight the role that motives and negative affect play in the prediction of negative hookup consequences. Moreover, the findings from the current study have the potential to inform prevention efforts designed to reduce hookup consequences.     

Sexual Hookups and Adverse Health Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of First-Year College Women

“Hookups” are sexual encounters between partners who are not in a romantic relationship and do not expect commitment. We examined the associations between sexual hookup behavior and depression, sexual victimization (SV), and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among first-year college women. In this longitudinal study, 483 women completed 13 monthly surveys assessing oral and vaginal sex with hookup and romantic partners, depression, SV, and self-reported STIs. Participants also provided biological specimens that were tested for STIs. During the study, 50% of participants reported hookup sex and 62% reported romantic sex. Covariates included previous levels of the outcome, alcohol use, impulsivity, sensation seeking, and romantic sex. Autoregressive cross-lagged models showed that, controlling for covariates, hookup behavior during college was correlated with depression, Bs = .21, ps < .05, and SV, Bs = .19, ps < .05. In addition, precollege hookup behavior predicted SV early in college, B = .62, p < .05. Hookup sex, OR 1.32, p < .05, and romantic sex, OR 1.19, p < .05, were associated with STIs. Overall, sexual hookup behavior among college women was positively correlated with experiencing depression, SV, and STIs, but the nature of these associations remains unclear, and hooking up did not predict future depression.     

Examining the influence of gender and sexual motivation in college hookups

ABSTRACT

Objective: Hooking up is common in college, and has been linked to heavy drinking. Hookups have positive as well as negative consequences, and thus the motivations for hooking up are complex. Yet, little research has focused on these motivations. The present study examined the role that gender and drinking patterns play in the relationship between sexual motivation and penetrative hookups. Participants: Heavy drinking college students (N = 396) completed online surveys between September/October 2009. Method: Sexual motivation, alcohol, and hooking up were assessed. Results: Enhancement motives and drinking frequency predicted more frequent oral and vaginal sex when hooking up, while peer and partner motives predicted anal sex. Men endorsed greater enhancement motives, peer motives, and hookup oral and vaginal sex. For men, coping motives predicted oral and vaginal sex and peer motives predicted anal sex. Conclusions: Results provide greater insight into the reasons why college students engage in penetrative hookups.     

What’s Gender Got to Do With It? Sexual Double Standards and Power in Heterosexual College Hookups

Although college hookups are typically enjoyable for both men and women, heterosexual hookups often involve inequitable power dynamics that privilege men (e.g., women perform sexual acts to please partners and/or succumb to pressure for intercourse). Some scholars have attributed this power imbalance to the traditional double standard. However, recent studies have indicated college students typically endorse egalitarian standards—and some endorse a reverse double standard in which they negatively judge men more than women for engaging in the same sexual behavior. Using Online College Social Life Survey data (N = 11,077) I examined relationships between endorsement of double standards and power in hookups. Because contemporary students often believe double standards exist in society but not in their own minds, I also examined relationships between feeling negatively judged for hooking up and power. Most respondents endorsed egalitarian standards, but women were more likely than men to feel judged for hooking up. Feeling judged was a significant predictor of power disadvantages for women and men; endorsing a double standard disparaging one’s own gender was significant among men. Findings suggest contemporary relevance of the traditional double standard and highlight differences between women’s and men’s endorsement of double standards disparaging their own gender.     

Assessing the Personal Negative Impacts of Hooking Up Experienced by College Students: Gender Differences and Mental Health

Hooking up is a normative behavior among college students that is associated with a range of positive and negative consequences. While previous research has primarily focused on women’s negative experiences of hooking up, the current study explored the relationships among hooking up behaviors, psychological distress, and a broad range of negative effects of hooking up in both male and female college students. Using a multisite sample of college students, we developed the 14-item Negative Impact of Hookups Inventory (NIHI) to assess negative health outcomes, emotional responses, and social consequences associated with hooking up. Unprotected sex and having more hookup partners were associated with greater negative experiences of hooking up. Contrary to expectations, there were no gender differences in the total number of negative hookup effects, although men reported more frequent hookups. In addition, negative impacts of hooking up were positively associated with psychological distress regardless of gender. The NIHI may offer a useful tool to assess the negative impacts of hooking up. Understanding students’ hookup experiences is an important step toward developing targeted health interventions related to hooking up behavior in young adult populations.     

“Hookups”: Characteristics and correlates of college students' spontaneous and anonymous sexual experiences

This study focused on a specific risky practice common among contemporary college students: the hookup. Hookups are defined as a sexual encounter which may or may not include sexual intercourse, usually occurring on only one occasion between two people who are strangers or brief acquaintances. The aim of this study was to determine the relative importance of a variety of social and psychological predictors in understanding differences among undergraduate students who had never hooked up, those who had hooked up without sexual intercourse, and those who had hooked up with sexual intercourse. Analyses revealed that, as predicted, social, individual, and relational psychological variables helped to explain the variance among college students' varied hookup experiences. By examining the full range of sexual involvement characteristic of the casual sexual phenomenon of hooking up within a multivariate model, we were able to achieve a more differentiated understanding of college students' casual sexual experimentation.     

Promiscuous Intimacies: Rethinking the History of American Casual Sex

Casual sex has become a cultural commonplace since it was named in the 1960s and later became associated with the US college sex phenomenon of “hooking up”. However, contemporary accounts of this sexual practice are curiously lacking in historical perspective. This article explores this modern history, both before and after uncommitted, non‐romantic, sexual encounters – sex for sex's sake – were named as casual sex. It agues that studies that contrast the increased “sexual possibilities” of hookup sex to the assumed restrictive practices of an earlier era distort both the restrictions of the earlier period and the freedoms of the latter.     

Gendered jocks or equal players? Athletic affiliation and hooking up among college students

ABSTRACT

Previous research has found sex-specific effects of athletic participation on young adult sexuality, with male athletes reporting increased sexual activity and female athletes reporting lower levels of sexual activity relative to non-athlete peers. Yet research has not examined sexual activity by athletic affiliation beyond quantity, nor considered the normative landscape of non-relational college sexual culture. The current paper examines the relationships between sex, athletic affiliation, and hooking up among students at 14 U.S. universities with Division I and II athletics programs. Findings show that, controlling for demographics and background characteristics, 1) male and female athletes participate in hooking up at higher rates than non-athletes, and 2) male athletes have less male dominated hookups in terms of sexual initiation. Results are discussed in terms of the increasing value similarity of men and women's collegiate sports programs.     

A Cross-Cultural Content-Analytic Comparison of the Hookup Culture in U.S. and Dutch Teen Girl Magazines

This quantitative content analysis investigated the hookup culture in U.S. and Dutch teen girl magazines. Using Hofstede's cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, the hookup culture (i.e., the relational context of sex, emotional context of sex, specific sexual activities, and contraceptives) was examined in 2,496 stories from all 2006 through 2008 issues of the three most popular U.S. (i.e., Seventeen, CosmoGirl! U.S. edition, and Teen) and Dutch teen girl magazines (i.e., Fancy, CosmoGirl! Netherlands edition, and Girlz!). Regarding the relational context of sex, stories about casual sex occurred more often in U.S. magazines, and Dutch magazines focused more on committed sex. Dutch magazines also emphasized sex within the emotional context of love more often than did U.S. magazines. In terms of sexual activities, coital sex was mentioned more often in U.S. coverage, while petting was mentioned more frequently in Dutch coverage. Condoms were covered more positively in U.S. magazines than in Dutch magazines. Overall, the hookup culture seems to be more visible in U.S. magazines for the occurrence of casual sex and lack of love stories, whereas it does not emerge in Dutch magazines due to the presence of committed sex and love-related articles.     

The Relationship Between Perceived Hookup Attitudes and Negative Hookup Consequences: Do Perceived Attitudes of Close Friends Matter?

Research suggests that the perceived hookup attitudes of close referents are generally a poor predictor of hookup behavior and likely a poor direct predictor of negative hookup consequences. The current study aimed to examine three intervening variables as mediators of the relationship between the perceived hookup attitudes of college students’ close friends and negative hookup consequences (e.g., regret, embarrassment). Self-report data were collected from 589 heavy-drinking college students from three midsized universities. The results indicated that students’ own attitudes toward hooking up, motivation to hook up, and self-reported number of hookup partners significantly mediated the relationship between the perceived hookup attitudes of close friends and negative hookup consequences. The perceived hookup attitudes of close friends were positively associated with participants’ attitudes toward hooking up. Participants’ attitudes toward hooking up were positively associated with social-sexual motivation to hook up. Elevated social-sexual motivation to hook up was positively associated with hooking up with multiple partners, with hooking up with multiple partners positively associated with negative hookup consequences. A better understanding of the predictors and mediators of negative hookup consequences has the potential to inform prevention and intervention efforts.     

What Is Hooking Up? Examining Definitions of Hooking Up in Relation to Behavior and Normative Perceptions

Research has demonstrated ambiguity about the definition of hooking up among college students. The current research examined whether there were multiple definitions of hooking up among college students and how different definitions might be associated with the participant's own hooking up behavior and normative perceptions of peer hooking up behavior. A random sample (N = 1,468) of undergraduates (56.4% female) completed a Web-based survey composed of measures of drinking and sexual behavior. Open-ended definitions of hooking up were content-coded and analyzed using a mixture model to explore discrete definitions of hooking up among college students. Findings indicated three clusters of student definitions of hooking up: Cluster 1 had the broadest definition, referring to sex in general, not specific sexual acts, and to making out. Cluster 2 placed an emphasis on interpersonal and social aspects. Cluster 3 defined hooking up as sex with notable references to specific sexual acts. Results further indicated that hooking up behavior and normative perceptions differentiated these three groups of definitions. Clinical implications regarding the inconsistency of student definitions of hooking up and how they may impact negative consequences associated with hooking up are discussed.     

Marriage Delay,Time to Play? Marital Horizons and Hooking Up in College

Previous research suggests that an increasing age at first marriage has contributed to the prevalence of sexual hookups on U.S. college campuses. In this article, we use life course and marital horizons theories to analyze the influence of ideal age at first marriage on hooking up among unmarried heterosexual college students. Analyses of the Online College Social Life Survey (N = 17,981) show a positive association between ideal age at first marriage and hookups for most students, but not for students whose mothers have no post‐secondary education, Asian men, Asian women, and Latina women. Variation in ideal marriage timing does not account for gender, racial/ethnic, and class gaps in hookup participation. Results are discussed with reference to the role of sexuality in processes of stratification throughout young adulthood.     

Premarital sexual intercourse: A test of the effects of peer group,religiosity, and sexual guilt

Previous research findings have been inconsistent concerning the influence on a person's sexual behavior of the peer group's sexual behavior and approval. Therefore, in this paper the relative importance of one's closest, friends' sexual behavior, their perceived approval for engaging in premarital coitus. age, sex guilt, and conventional religiosity were examined. Respondents were 467 dormitory students from a large mid‐Atlantic university. Results of separate path analyses for men and women showed that the greater the number of close friends thought to be nonvirgins, the greater the likelihood the man was also nonvirgin. Anticipated approval from close friends was not associated with a man being a nonvirgin. For women, both the sexual behavior and the expected degree of approval from close friends was associated with a woman being a nonvirgin. For both sexes, sex guilt was negatively associated with being a nonvirgin, whereas the respondent's age and degree of conventional religiosity were not associated with the sexual behavior. The findings indicate that researchers should specify whether a peer group's standards, or behavior, is being considered.     

Pluralistic ignorance and Hooking up

“Hooking up “—when two people agree to engage in sexual behavior for which there is no future commitment—has become popular on college campuses. In this study we examined the extent to which pluralistic ignorance affects hooking up. One hundred thirty‐six female and 128 male college students answered questions regarding their own comfort and their perceived peers'comfort in engaging in a variety of sexual behaviors while hooking up. We hypothesized and found that both women and men rated their peers as being more comfortable engaging in these behaviors than they rated themselves. Men expressed more comfort than did women in engaging in these behaviors, and both sexes overestimated the other gender's comfort with hooking up behaviors. Pluralistic ignorance appears to apply to hooking up on college campuses, and we explore some potential consequences of pluralistic ignorance in this context.     

The sexuality scale: An instrument to measure sexual‐esteem,sexual‐depression,and sexual‐preoccupation

This article describes the development of the Sexuality Scale, an instrument designed to measure three aspects of human sexuality: sexual‐esteem, defined as positive regard for and confidence in the capacity to experience one's sexuality in a satisfying and enjoyable way; sexual‐depression, defined as the experience of feelings of depression regarding one's sex life; and sexual‐preoccupation, defined as the tendency to think about sex to an excessive degree. The procedure involved (a) item construction, selection and subsequent validation through item analysis; and (b) a factor analysis of the items on the Sexuality Scale and the establishment of factorial validity. The results indicated that the three subscales were psychometrically sound, that males reported more sexual‐preoccupation than did females, and that the three subscales have unique intercorrelation patterns. The exploratory nature of these findings are discussed.     

Customer First and Customer Sexual Harassment: Some Evidence from the Taiwan Life Insurance Industry

Empirical research suggests that customer sexual harassment is a far more common problem than employee to employee harassment for female salespeople. However, to date, there has been relatively little research conducted on the problem of customer sexual harassment. Insurance salespeople sometimes need to meet customers outside the company, and customer sexual harassment problems may occur. Hence, by using Taiwan's life insurance industry as an example, this study explores three research questions: (1) When the idea of ‘customer first’ is fully recognized by insurance salespeople, does it make the salespeople more tolerant of customer sexual harassment problems? (2) When the idea of customer first is supported by the insurance company, will insurance salespeople expose customer sexual harassment problems? (3) Will insurance salespeople tend to be more tolerant of quid pro quo sexual harassment? A total of 223 full‐time and self‐employed insurance salespeople participated in and completed this study survey. The results showed that the company's attitude may significantly affect the respondents' intention to expose the customer sexual harassment, but the personal belief in ‘customer first’ may not affect the respondents' intention to expose the customer misconduct. Since the three research questions have been less studied in the literature, and customer sexual harassment problems could have serious effects on salespeople, we think the results of this empirical study may have some implications for researchers and practitioners.