Study: Casual Sex Not Hurtful

(Minneapolis, Minnesota) Surprising, it's called. According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, promiscuous sexual behavior euphemistically called "casual sex" and "friends with benefits" produces no adverse psychological or emotional consequences. In other words, sleeping around is OK.

Marla E. Eisenberg (PhD) and her colleagues discuss the study in this month's issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Over 1,300 young Minnesotans were surveyed and no evidence of psychological problems were found.

Speculation in public discourse suggests that sexual encounters outside a committed romantic relationship may be emotionally damaging for young people, and federal abstinence education policy has required teaching that sexual activity outside of a marital relationship is likely to have harmful psychological consequences.

Maybe it's just me but it appears that the research results were designed to specifically target abstinence education policies for bashing. If not, why bring the subject up?

In any event, it's difficult to believe that the complex psychological and emotional well-being of a population can be easily discerned by a survey. After all, psychiatrists may analyze for years trying to unravel the psychological and emotional turmoil in one person's brain. It seems unbelievably ambitious to make similar assertions regarding entire populations without similar analysis, particularly when they involve episodes of potentially-traumatic sexual intimacy.

In summary, I'm skeptical of the entire study. However, despite my misgivings, I confess that I've toyed with the idea of contacting the researchers to request the names and phone numbers of all the young women surveyed who believe that engaging in casual sex is less important than using their own toothbrushes. Granted, it would be a snarky, non-peer review of their study -- nothing I'd expect a response from.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.