Relationship Dissolution as a Life Stage Transition: Effects on Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

ࡗ Relationship Dissolution as a Life Stage Transition: Effects on Sexual Attitudes and BehaviorsIn this paper, with the use of linear regressions to investigate how relationship dissolution affects sexual attitudes and behaviors, the authors address the stereotype that newly single people seek multiple sexual partners. Although the newly single people surveyed did obtain new sexual partners, the rate at which they acquired new partners did not support the stereotype. Specifically, men with custody of their children seemed oriented toward finding a steady partner. Additionally, men and women with low incomes reported relatively high rates of partner acquisition after relationship dissolution. The high rates reported by disadvantaged groups may be more directly related to familial instability accompanying poverty than to cultural characteristics associated with income or race. We argue that a life stage model with categorical stages in a rigid, anachronistic progression provides insufficient means to gain an understanding of newly single people.Newly single people are often imagined to be wildly sexual, seeking multiple partners out of a sense of freedom or out of desperation for validation. This stereotype resonates in part because, of all dimensions of identity, sexual identity is one of the most extensively structured by life stage

Relationships and sexual expression in later life: a biopsychosocial perspective

“…Research using the NHSLS data on people aged 18À59 found that resuming sexual activity following divorce or dissolution of a cohabiting relationship was related to how recently the event had taken place. There was a significant positive relationship between having left a relationship within the past year and more frequent sexual activity (Wade & DeLamater, 2002). Stack and Gundlach (1992), analyzing older General Social Survey data, reported that men were more likely to be sexually active following divorce than women, and that likelihood of being sexually active declined with age.…”

Bringing Your Baggage to Bed: Associations of Previous Relationship Experiences with Sexual Risk

“…Couples in which the female partner had a previous cheating partner had a longer presexual period and time to unprotected sex than couples in which the female partner did not have a previous cheating partner. Past research suggests that bad previous relationship experiences could either injure self-worth resulting in increased risk behavior or could lead to feelings of mistrust of sexual partners resulting in cautious and protective behavior (18, 21). Our results are more consistent with heightened mistrust resulting in a longer presexual period and time to unprotected sex.…”

“…One study found strong feelings of residual anger after a breakup that could affect trust towards future partners and sexual decision making (18). However, other studies found that being dumped can cause damage to self-esteem, which has been linked to increased sexual risk such as sex with risky partners and unprotected sex (21–23). Wade & Delamater (2002) found individuals with a recent breakup had more new sexual partners than those without a recent breakup, and this relationship was stronger for men.…”

Toward a Social Science of Sexual Satisfaction: Commentary on “Virginity Lost, Satisfaction Gained? Physiological and Psychological Sexual Satisfaction at Heterosexual Debut”

“…It would, therefore, behoove scholars to begin measuring satisfaction in contexts other than respondents' current relationships or most recent sexual encounter (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994). Bringing a life-course perspective to bear on sexual attitudes, activities, and identities represents a burgeoning and potentially very fruitful direction in the field (e.g., Carpenter, in press;Donnelly, Burgess, Anderson, Davis, & Dillard, 2001;Wade & DeLamater, 2002). Furthermore, analyzing particular sexual experiences, like first sex, in the context of other (sexual and nonsexual) life experiences would help to counteract the potentially harmful tendency, common to scholars and lay people alike, to assume that a single experience can necessarily ''make or break'' an entire lifetime (for a critique regarding virginity loss, see Carpenter, 2005).…”