Millennials Are the 'Hookup Generation'? Not Quite

They have less sex, few partners than their parents: study
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2016 10:17 AM CDT
Millennials Are the 'Hookup Generation'? Not Even Close
Condoms are displayed in Los Angeles.   (Bret Hartman /AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

Think young people are knocking boots left and right? You're actually way off. In fact, millennials' sex lives are most similar to those about 75 years ago, a new study finds. In a survey of 26,000 adults from 1989 to 2014, people born in the 1980s and '90s reported being less sexually active than baby boomers and Generation Xers born in the 1960s and '70s, and with fewer sexual partners, reports the Washington Post. About 15% of people 20 to 24 reported having no sexual partners since age 18, compared to 6% of Generation Xers at that age. Why such a discrepancy? Jean Twenge of San Diego State University tells CNN there could be a number of factors in play, from busy schedules to a preoccupation with technology, but the finding is "part of a general theme of later maturation that's been pretty well-documented."

Recent CDC data, for example, shows 41% of high school students said they'd had sex in 2015, down from 54% in 1991. Twenge says there's now less pressure on young people to form relationships early and "more ways to entertain yourself" with technology, so sex may not be as important as it was to previous generations. Millennials—who live with their parents longer and get married later—are also more aware of safety concerns, which may hold them back in the bedroom. After reviewing data from a nationally representative survey, researchers concluded that millennials' reputation as the "hookup generation" is misleading. "There are some teens and young adults who are using hookup apps and are very promiscuous," Twenge tells New York. "It's just they are the exception." (More on millennials' sex lives here.)

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