The world has been shaken up significantly, Spear said. We haven t figured out what takes the place of waiting to have sex before marriage. Europeans have apparently not figured it out, either. The number of sexual partners in the United States is similar to those of developed European countries, however, the number of unplanned pregnancies is not, Spear said. European countries focus on sex more as a health issue, whereas the United States focuses on it more as a political issue that is widely publicized in the media.
Many students still believe in waiting until marriage before having sex.
However, sexual relations before marriage are on the rise, UW-Madison students said. In general though, adults who choose to engage in sexual relations before marriage usually tend to have only a few, close relations. I get very upset when I read that all students are jumping from bed to bed, because this is not the norm, Spear said. Another factor that may cause the number of sexual relations to be high is the need for love and acceptance. I think a lot of people want to be accepted and they think that love and sex go together, so they try to use sex to find love, an anonymous junior said.