Duke Professor Surveys Campus 'Hook-up' Culture, Hook-Up Culture is the American way... Options

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This is a classic lol
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Casual sex is increasingly described as the normative form of romantic relationships on campuses, said Suzanne Shanahan, associate director of the Kenan Institute of Ethics and assistant professor of sociology. Shanahan led the presentation "Love on the Quad: Romantic Relationships," Saturday at Duke.

In a cross-disciplinary research study, Shanahan examined the changing relationships among students at Duke and other college campuses, along with the concept of a "hook-up" and its effects on student interaction.

"Popular press has become obsessed with the hook-up culture of young people," she said.

According to a report produced for the Independent Women's Forum in 2001, 91 percent of college women surveyed on campuses nationwide described their school as having a "salient hook-up culture," Shanahan added. Other surveys found that approximately 70 to 80 percent of college students engaged in intercourse with a casual sex partner during the previous year.

The study aims not only to define "hook-up," but also to understand how students' environments affect their decisions and perceptions of relationships.

"We are just getting underway with our systematic work at Duke - so much is still speculative," Shanahan said. "[In the winter] we hope to bring the survey findings back to the students to think them through."

A few current Duke students said, however, that they are not at all surprised.

"I don't really know anyone who is in a relationship with someone here," freshman Jessie Mark said. "There's drama because one person always wants more."

Generally, females are more likely than males to prefer a relationship to a "hook-up," Shanahan said. Her research found that only 40 percent of women surveyed had themselves participated in casual sex during the previous year -- a contrast to the percentage engaging in casual intercourse as a whole.



Source: http://media.www.theminaretonline.com/medi...e-3038673.shtml


The study addresses a growing normative trend among college students: the hookup. In general, hookups are a way that college students get their physical, emotional, and social needs met outside the parameters of historically defined “romantic relationships". Data were gathered from 1,123 surveys and 40 in-depth interviews with undergraduates at a mid-sized public university in the South. The authors examine the prevalence of casual sexual encounters and the myriad definitions of hookups. Our data show that hooking up has become a sexual norm. Despite the prevalence of this activity, there is little consensus on the exact definition of a hookup, and we discuss the potential reasons for this diversity. We examine the multitude of reasons why students engage in hookups and present data showing the similarities and differences between how women and men define and interpret hookups and the different strategies used by women and men to negotiate effects on their reputations. This includes the sexual “double standard" that continues to exist, disadvantaging women. This dynamic is a constant factor in both the hookup culture and in every aspect of the daily lives of college students, yet both women and men continue to consistently engage in this behavior. Our research sheds light on a prevalent form of social interaction among young people that affects their self-concepts and beliefs about sexual norms.

Source: http://www.dominican.edu/query/ncur/display_ncur.php?id=966

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and so...?