American attitudes about sex continue to change, from one generation to the next. A new study by the General Social Survey, published today in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, shows that Millennials are more likely to think premarital sex is OK than their Gen-X parents — even though they often have fewer partners.
Charlotte Alter covers the study over at Time. From the article:
Over the last eight years, acceptance of premarital sex has moved from a minority position to a majority position, with 58% of respondents in 2012 saying they thought there was nothing wrong with sex before marriage (compared to 44% in 2004,) according to a new study of over 33,000 people published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour. Over the 35 years before that, acceptance has gradually increased: 28% thought premarital sex was ok in 1972, then 38% in 1978, then 41% in 1982. As acceptance for premarital sex has increased, so has tolerance for homosexuality — in 1973, 11% of people believed gay sex was “not wrong,” but by 2012 that number had quadrupled to 44%.
And this appears to be a generational, rather than gradual, shift. Read more over in Time.