Contrary to popular belief, university students report excellent sexual health and wellness. This is according to a forthcoming sexual health study done by Trojan (the condom manufacturer) and the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada (SIECCAN), who found that most Canadian university students are happy with their sex lives, most of which involves someone with whom they are in a committed relationship.
For the study, which was presented last month at the annual Guelph Sexuality Conference at the University of Guelph, the researchers conducted a multi-faceted online survey of 1,500 university students aged 18 to 24 years. For 60% of the men and 70% of the women surveyed, their last sexual partner was either their spouse, fiancé or an otherwise committed romantic partner. At the other end of the scale, casual sex was the most recent experience for 30% of the men and 23% of the women polled.
According to University of Ottawa sex researcher Jocelyn Wentland, young people are clear on the distinctions between different types of casual sex relationships. ‘They’re very, very clear on what these relationship types are,’ she said. ‘And it doesn’t matter whether you have engaged in one or not, you know the definition of it and you know the appropriate behaviour that goes along with it.’ However, these findings are a stark contrast to the sexual wellbeing of students across the border.
Donna Freitas, author of new book, The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, commented that in the US ‘Mostly, students are ambivalent or they’re fairly unhappy. And one of the things I thought was really shocking was that when I asked students to talk about their hook-ups, pleasure almost never came up. They didn’t talk about pleasure, as if pleasure was not even a part of the bargain.’
However, when the Canadian survey asked students to rate their overall happiness with their sex life, 67% of men said they were “happy” or “very happy,” as did 80% of the women. Alex McKay, SIECCAN’s research coordinator, explained, ‘men and women, particularly young men and women, use different criteria to assess their happiness with their sex life.’ He noted that there’s a ‘greater propensity for males to assess their own happiness simply in terms of the quantity of sex they are having’ while a young woman is ‘more likely to be looking at the quality of her relationship.’ Wentland added, ‘Maybe this is a reflection of women being accepting and pleased that there are various relationship options available to them.’