Science of the Spirit

Casual sex correlated with anxiety, depression

The Times Of India
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 07:30 UTC

University students, who engage in casual sex - having intercourse with someone whom you have known for less than a week -suffer from higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety and depression, researchers have claimed.

3,900 straight students in the age group of 18 and 25 from 30 different US colleges were questioned about their sex lives and mental well-being.

The researchers found that people who recently engaged in casual sex seemed to have low levels of self-esteem, happiness and life-satisfaction than others who didn't hook-up with a relative stranger in last 1 month, the New York Daily News reported.

Lead author Melina Bersamin of California State University, Sacramento said in a statement that it's premature to say that casual sexual poses no harmful psychological risks for young adults.

She added that the results study suggested that casual sex was negatively associated with well-being and positively linked to psychological distress.

The study has been published in The Journal of Sex Research.

Reader Comments

gdpetti · 2013-07-20T15:41:46Z

O Ho Ho!

Maybe this isn't the case with the 'gayer' sex? I see that they were excluded from the casual sex study and why is that? Did the researchers feel that their data might skew the intended results? And what did the researchers intend or think they would find? That should be listed at the beginning of every report, for that would give us reading it a better idea of the parameters this study entails... there's a word for that, but I can't think of it, perhaps too much anxiety and depression? Or a lack thereof? Inquiring minds want to know, but they don't seem to have been part of this study, as subjects or researchers. Limits, that's all we ever find, perhaps that is the cause of this anxiety and depression and perhaps casual sex is meaningless to some with no effects, but meaningful to others (for better or worse), but with effects that only amplify the emotional state already present?

Oh well, it seems this study could have been interesting if not for the early jump at the gate.

Mr Natural · 2013-07-20T18:15:55Z

That's not the way social science research works. They didn't include Laplanders either. As these studies go, this one is actually quite inclusive, with males and females of several ages included from 30 different locations. It's a single study and others should follow up to see if it's replicated in other studies. Other researchers can include gays, non-college subjects, non-Americans, Laplanders or whatever.

My beef is the headline, which implies causality. Any college freshman knows that correlation doesn't mean causation. It could just as easily be that those with pre-existing anxiety and/or depression are more likely to engage in casual sex.