Premarital Sex and Marriage Timing

• In Event: 3523 - Family Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 8: Sexual Behaviors

Abstract

Studies have shown that having multiple premarital sex partners has implications for marital quality and stability, but to date no research has examined whether premarital promiscuity affects marriage rates. Using data from four waves of the National Survey of Family Growth, I find that promiscuous Americans are less likely to get married. However, the association is misleading given the retrospective nature of the data. Seventeen waves of prospective data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth’s 1997 cohort that extend through 2015 show that the effect of premarital sex on marriage rates is temporary: lifetime promiscuity has no effect on marriage. Nonetheless, seemingly unrelated bivariate probit models suggest that the short-term effect is likely causal. These results are unchanged after controlling for a variety of individual differences between respondents. Finally, my findings cast doubt on recent scholarship that has implicated the ready availability of casual sex in the retreat from marriage.

Author

• Nicholas H. Wolfinger, University of Utah