Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Christians and the frequency & duration of sex


(Post 12 in a series)

Another measure of sexual behavior is the frequency and duration of sex: How often and for how long. Here are more data from the NHSLS.

The first number represents the average number of times they had sex in the previous month. The second number is the percentage for whom the last sexual event lasted 1 hour or more.

Men
7, 26% No religion
6, 18% Mainline protestant
7, 19% Conservative protestant
7, 19% Catholic

Women
6, 20% No religion
6, 12% Mainline protestant
7, 14% Conservative protestant
6, 16% Catholic

So, it looks like Christians have sex just as often as those with no-religion, but they take less time doing this.

This is quite likely due to differences in marriage rates. Only about 8-9% of the married people reported the last event lasting 1 hour or more; whereas, 30%-36% of the non-cohabitators reported the same.

Source: Sex in America, Michael et al. 1994, p. 137.

5 comments:

Knumb said...

There's an Al Bundy joke in here somewhere, but I'm in too much of a hurry to think of it.

Brad Wright said...

Hurry up honey or we'll be late for Bible study again?

SARA said...

Brad, I like the way you make your comment interrogative, that way your thought is suggested to be your brothers *smile*. See, i told ya you were brilliant!

Jay Livingston said...

The male-female differences are small but consistent across religion categories -- slightly more times for men than for women, slightly more lasting over an hour. Which raises the question of who these extra men are doing it with, especially in the OT period?

Also, I wonder whether marital status is the important control variable. Might it not be Age?

Brad Wright said...

Thanks Sarah, but I think today's post, about money, is a better indicator of my savvy.

Jay, I wondered about the time difference too. I figure that men exaggerate in this area of sex as they do in everything else!