Arielle Kuperberg

Dating and Hooking Up in College: Meeting Contexts, Sex, and Variation by Gender, Partner's Gender, and Class Standing

This study examined 13,976 dates and 12,068 hookup encounters at 22 colleges in the United States reported by students surveyed between 2005 and 2011 in the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) to determine differences between dates and hookups in partner meeting context and sex during the encounter. Students most often met date and hookup partners through institutional settings or bars and parties, with approximately two-thirds of partners met in these venues. Those who had fewer potential partners on campus (women) were less likely to find partners in campus locations and less likely to find male sexual or dating partners but more likely to date women. Men and women engaging in same-sex encounters had higher rates of meeting partners through Internet sources. Hookups were associated with partners met in bars, parties, nightclubs, and college dormitories, and were twice as likely as dates to include sex. Students were more likely to go on dates with partners met on the Internet, which we theorize is a result of low levels of trust associated with that context. Patterns found are related to the association of meeting contexts with hookup scripts, risk and trust, and local partnering markets.

The role of culture in explaining college students’ selection into hookups, dates, and long-term romantic relationships

We analyze the Online College Social Life Survey, a survey collected between 2005 and 2011 of students (N = 22,454) at 22 U.S. colleges and universities and estimate whether students hooked up, dated, formed long-term romantic relationships, or did not form relationships while in college and their desire for these relationship opportunities. Students have equal rates of hooking up and dating. Men are more likely than women to have dated and hooked up and less likely to have formed a long-term relationship, although they are more likely to wish there were more opportunities to form long-term relationships. An examination of intimate partnering by sexual orientation, race, religious attendance, and Greek culture reveals distinct pattern that can be explained by cultural norms.

Partner meeting contexts and risky behavior in college students' other-sex and same-sex hookups

We analyzed a sample of 12,065 hookup encounters among college students at 22 colleges and universities in the Online College Social Life Survey (OCSLS) to explore how partner meeting locales may influence college students’ risky behavior when hookup partners are met in those contexts. For other-sex encounters, meeting in bars or at parties, through common interest groups or history, and (for women) at dormitories was associated with binge drinking during encounters, while meeting online and (for women) in public was associated with reduced binge drinking during encounters. Unprotected sex during other-sex encounters was more common when partners were met in public and less common with partners met in dormitories. Binge drinking and marijuana use during or just prior to encounters was associated with an increased risk of unprotected sex and other substance use. Marijuana use and unprotected sex during encounters was more common when students knew their hookup partner better or had hooked up with the partner before, while binge drinking was associated with hooking up with less familiar partners. Associations of meeting contexts with behavior were explained by the locale’s association with institutional and personal trust, social scripts, and selection into certain contexts by students with a risk-taking personality.

Heterosexual College Students Who Hookup with Same-Sex Partners

Individuals who identify as heterosexual but engage in same-sex sexual behavior fascinate both researchers and the media. We analyzed the Online College Social Life Survey dataset of over 24,000 undergraduate students to examine students whose last hookup was with a same-sex partner (N = 383 men and 312 women). The characteristics of a significant minority of these students (12% of men and 25% of women) who labelled their sexual orientation “heterosexual” differed from those who self-identified as “homosexual,” “bisexual,” or “uncertain.” Differences among those who identified as heterosexual included more conservative attitudes, less prior homosexual and more prior heterosexual sexual experience, features of the hookups, and sentiments about the encounter after the fact. Latent class analysis revealed six distinctive “types” of heterosexually identified students whose last hookup was with a same-sex partner. Three types, comprising 60% of students, could be classified as mostly private sexual experimentation among those with little prior same-sex experience, including some who did not enjoy the encounter; the other two types in this group enjoyed the encounter, but differed on drunkenness and desire for a future relationship with their partner. Roughly, 12% could be classified as conforming to a “performative bisexuality” script of women publicly engaging in same-sex hookups at college parties, and the remaining 28% had strong religious practices and/or beliefs that may preclude a non-heterosexual identity, including 7% who exhibited “internalized heterosexism.” Results indicate several distinctive motivations for a heterosexual identity among those who hooked up with same-sex partners; previous research focusing on selective “types” excludes many exhibiting this discordance.

Gender and Hooking Up

Hookups, or encounters that include varied sexual behaviors without expectation of a committed relationship, have received substantial academic and popular interest over the past two decades. We review research on college hookup culture, focusing on gender and patterns of hookup participation, experiences, and outcomes. We critically examine theoretical perspectives that have been offered to explain gender differences in hooking up, explore problematic dynamics in hookups including gendered sexual double standards and sexual assault, and describe recent advances in hookup research related to campus sex ratios, same-sex hookups, and race and class intersections. We offer a critique of existing research and provide suggestions for future studies of gender and sexual encounters. Specifically, research on the intersections of gender with race/ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation are lacking, as are studies of transgender hookups, hookups among same aged non-college attending young adults, and hookups that occur later in the life course.

Premarital Cohabitation and Direct Marriage in the United States: 1956–2015

Abstract Cohabitation rates and durations increased rapidly beginning in the late 1960s, and by 2011–2015, 70% of first marriages among women under age 36 began in premarital cohabitation lasting an average of 32 months before marriage. The National Survey of Families and Households (n = 3,594) and the National Survey of Family Growth (n = 9,420) are analyzed to estimate selection into direct marriage and premarital cohabitation from 1956–2015, and long- and short-term premarital cohabitations from 1971–2015. Early premarital cohabitors were more likely to be women of color and had the same education as direct marriers. Later cohorts of premarital cohabitors were less educated, from lower class backgrounds, more likely to have experienced a parental divorce/separation, less religious, and long-term premarital cohabitations were more common among women of color.